Better Home & Finance is releasing a new product that will help homeowners access home equity.

The mortgage originator announced Wednesday the launch of its Better Home Equity Card on Stripe Issuing. The card offers a simpler and digital alternative to high-cost unsecured debt for home renovations and improvements, the company said.

"Homeowners are reaching for a credit card to pay for a kitchen renovation or backyard upgrade because the tools to access their equity haven't evolved," said Vishal Garg, CEO and founder of Better, in a press release. "We've built the Better Home Equity Card to fix that."

The card, built on Stripe Issuing and Treasury, part of Stripe's embedded finance platform, lets homeowners instantly spend funds drawn from a home equity line of credit with Better. The funds are deposited into a Better-branded financial account, which is connected to a Better Mastercard. Eligible purchases also earn 1% cashback, according to the release.

Homeowners in the United States collectively hold $21.4 trillion in home equity, with more than 85 million possessing a median $276,000 in available capital. Yet nonmortgage consumer debt has reached $857 billion, as many homeowners have chosen high-interest credit cards over home equity to fund projects, the release states.

The Better Home Equity Card is a prepaid debit, unlike traditional credit cards, which draws from an unsecured revolving balance. Approved funds are deposited into a Stripe-powered financial account and available immediately, eliminating disbursement delays, the release said.

Better uses Stripe's money management suite, which allows users to pay contractors and purchase materials as work progresses. Eligible home improvement projects are also automatically organized into a live cost-basis tracker, according to the release.

"Banks have known for years that homeowners were overpaying for credit cards when they had equity sitting right there," Garg said. "This card gives them a smarter way to put that equity to work."

With the launch, Better continues to expand its product offerings, especially as it relates to home equity. Late last year, the company partnered with Finance of America to roll out HELOAN and HELOC products using Better's proprietary Tinman AI platform, which is now accessible from ChatGPT. Better also integrated Finance of America's reverse mortgage products into its platform.

The lender teamed up with Framework Ventures earlier this year as well to fund as much as $500 million in mortgages through crypto-linked capital, hoping to push borrower rates below 5%.