The Nova LOS, previously a product belonging to affiliated business Constellation Mortgage Solutions, provides a system for smaller lenders that would benefit from the minimal administrative overhead required, leaders at Dark Matter and its parent said in an interview with National Mortgage News. 

"While there's some similarities with regards to capabilities, Empower is far more expansive, comprehensive, configurable —  but also requires the ability and the resource commitment, if you will, from a lender, to have a full-time administrator," added Sean Dugan, chief revenue officer at Dark Matter. 

"By comparison, Nova is more of a plug-and-play system. You do not need a full-time administrator," he continued.

Canadian technology firm Constellation Software owns both the similarly-named mortgage unit and Dark Matter. Constellation Mortgage Solutions was previously known as Mortgage Builder before rebranding in early 2022.

Launched in September 2022, Nova is a cloud-hosted LOS platform that was developed with input from clients, Constellation leaders said at the time. At its introduction, the company claimed it was the only platform to offer originations for all loan types, including reverse mortgages. 

The decision to move the Nova LOS under Dark Matter branding also comes after conversations with mortgage lenders of various sizes and at different types of institutions, said Tom George, chief investment officer of the Andromeda division of Constellation's Perseus Group, which oversees the mortgage technology firms.

"Our view — and this isn't really even just in mortgage, but just generally with enterprise software, is that our customers and our lenders that are prospects — they don't really want to hear 'One size fits all,'" George said. "Dark Matter now has a broader product offering. They have an enterprise offering for enterprise customers. They've got mid market, and now they have a product that's really for the smaller lenders."  

Perseus Group is one of six divisions within Constellation Software, which acquired Dark Matter in 2023 and counts more than 1,200 other companies under its umbrella. Mortgage Builder, previously a subsidiary of Altisource Portfolio Solutions, itself, came to Constellation from an earlier acquisition in 2019.

Dark Matter may see a door opening to attract new Nova clients following the recent announcement by Intercontinental Exchange's mortgage unit of plans to discontinue its legacy Encompass SDK system. (There also is a separate legacy Mortgage Builder system that Constellation Software will continue to support through Dark Matter. That system will no longer be available to new customers.)

With lenders already moving away from SDK toward ICE Mortgage Technology's newer software, it may push some remaining users to consider switching to another option.

"The retirement of the SDK set on Encompass and the work that creates in migrating workflows and vendor integrations from one capability to the other — there's a tremendous amount of work and resources that are required. We think that will absolutely create some urgency for lenders to evaluate whether or not they're with the right long-term partner," Dugan said. 

Among other developments since its acquisition by Constellation, Jacksonville, Florida-based Dark Matter has focused on adding integrations to other mortgage partner systems within Empower, a feature that was largely lacking previously, George said. 

The company also said it understands the importance of continuing to offer customizations to clients, even though they can be "messy." 

"Customers do like it, and it's really important to their businesses, and so, we continue to beat that drum across Constellation," George said. 

Constellation Software, a publicly held company traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, acquired the Empower system after previous owner Black Knight agreed to divest the tool in order to gain regulatory approval for its merger with ICE Mortgage Technology. 

Product-pricing engine Optimal Blue, a subsidiary that also belonged to Black Knight, was purchased by Constellation as well, and currently operates as a separate entity from Dark Matter. 

Opponents of the merger had raised antitrust concerns over the deal, with ICE's Encompass the most widely used LOS in the home lending industry, while Black Knight's platform held the same spot in mortgage servicing. In recent earnings calls, ICE executives touted their success in converting servicing clients to Encompass customers.

Prior to the merger, Encompass served close to 50% of the mortgage industry, with Empower trailing in second with 10% to 15%, according to U.S. government documents.