"In these times of cost-of-living uncertainty and rate increases, the market coverage and advice consumers get from brokers has never been more valuable."
Sturgess has over two decades of experience in senior sales positions in financial services including a leadership role at GE Money. More recently he was head of sales at Masthaven Bank where he spent seven years and played a key role scaling the bank up to 200 employees.
In the newly created head of intermediary sales role, Sturgess is tasked with building out the B2B sales team and opening a new intermediary sales channel alongside StrideUp’s existing direct-to-consumer business.
StrideUp provides flexible online mortgage products for first-time buyers and is authorised by the FCA to provide regulated home finance.
StrideUp focuses on three core areas: increased finance amounts through a shared ownership mortgage product; a tech portal that streamlines and speeds-up the application process; and ethical and inclusive home financing that caters to a diverse population.
In June StrideUp completed a £280m funding deal with ARA Venn, a specialist investment manager of private debt in the residential sector. In addition to Jon's appointment, StrideUp has been building out its product, marketing and engineering teams with three new ‘head of’ hires in the last three months.
Jon Sturgess commented: “I’m excited to bring a proposition to market in an area where consumers, especially first-time buyers, are finding it harder and harder to get on the property ladder. The Help to Buy scheme has been great but its conclusion means it will be even more difficult for many people to buy their first home. With our flexible approach and innovative product range StrideUp can help fix that.”
Sakeeb Zaman, co-founder and CEO of StrideUp, added: “We’ve been hugely encouraged by the support and feedback we’ve had from brokers to date. StrideUp’s unique proposition gives first-time buyers the help they need to access up to 6.5 times income where they can sustainably demonstrate affordability. In these times of cost-of-living uncertainty and rate increases, the market coverage and advice consumers get from brokers has never been more valuable. With Jon’s appointment we’re excited to grow our intermediary channel and build a best-in-class service for our broker panel.”
