Wilmington’s Best Egg formally sheds the Marlette name as it continues to grow

Founded a decade ago in 2013 by Jeffrey Meiler, the company was born as Marlette Holdings with a mission to find better ways to make loans accessible to consumers. In the beginning, Best Egg was a product of Marlette, an online personal loan service launched in 2014. By 2017, LendingTree had named Best Egg the top personal lender on its quarterly list of the top customer-rated lenders.

In 2022, the company made news when it secured $225 million in Series E funding.

Best Egg stopped using the name Marlette a couple of years ago, other than for business and investment paperwork. On June 1, it became official: Best Egg is now the name of the company itself, not just the name of a product.

Or, we should say, products. As the company, headquartered in North Wilmington as the anchor of Concord Plaza, has grown to 600 employees, its offerings have increased, but its mission has stayed the same.

“Our purpose at Best Egg is to be the leading financial confidence platform for customers with little to no savings,” said Brian Conneen, CIO of Best Egg. “We really want to be the place that those folks with little to no savings turn to when they’re trying to improve their financial confidence through a variety of products and engagements and experiences.”

Brian Conneen. (Courtesy photo)

The company’s newest products are a vehicle equity loan that is secured with the leverage of the title of the vehicle that you own to get a better rate or a higher loan amount, and a flexible rent platform (a rebrand of Till, which the company acquired in December 2022) which allows customers to break their rent payment into multiple payments across the month, so don’t have to miss making a full payment while waiting for their next paycheck. The flexible rent platfrom is incorporated into the payment portals of MRI and AppFolio, two software widely used by property managers

“We find it gives customers great flexibility,” Conneen said. “When I was growing up I heard my mom, a single mother working retail, say all the time she [had to] ‘wait ’til payday.’ The word ‘payday’ was used all the time at my house — you’re living paycheck to paycheck with little to no savings, and any new expense is really tough.”

The original Best Egg loan product launched nine years ago is still a success, as is a credit card the company launched a few years ago and its Best Financial Health platform.

Best Egg continues to hire technologists for remote and flexible jobs, in keeping with the hybrid model the company established when it moved to its current location during the pandemic.

“We are still a hybrid company. We still believe in that,” Conneen said. “We’re obviously clearly committed to Delaware. It’s where our headquarters is, it’s our flagship, it’s where we believe it’s the right place to be for our company and our culture and the kind of business that we are. But the reality of our situation is hybrid is very important, whether an employee is within commuting distance or is on the other side of the country.”