SAN FRANCISCO and DENVER, May 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ownify, the fractional homeownership platform rebuilding affordable housing access, today announced the launch of the Ownify Home Fund Colorado and the appointment of Keith Kegley – Boulder-based investor, Principal of Meridien Partners, and longtime Social Venture Partners leader – to the company’s Advisory Board. Kegley will help guide Ownify’s expansion into Colorado, where the new fund will co-invest in single-family starter homes alongside qualified first-time homebuyers across the Front Range.
Colorado is the sixth least affordable state in the country, with a price-to-income ratio above 7x and a shortage of more than 106,000 housing units. 60% of Colorado renters cite an insufficient down payment as the primary barrier to ownership. The Ownify Home Fund Colorado is designed to address this crisis directly – not through subsidy, but through a structural innovation that aligns investor capital with homebuyer aspiration.
The Ownify Home Fund Colorado will allow qualified homebuyers to buy their homes through a shared equity partnership rather than with mortgage debt. By partnering investors in the fund with homebuyers, Ownify’s fractional ownership structure reduces the down payment requirement to 2% and lowers monthly cost of ownership by 10-15% compared to mortgage-based options. For investors, the Fund targets a 10–14% equity return and a 4% debt return for accredited investors. The fund is built on a track record established by Ownify Home Fund 1, which has produced an average annualized return of 12% since 2023 across its portfolio of co-owned homes in Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, and Nashville.
“Keith has spent his career at the intersection of technology, capital, and community impact, and he understands Colorado from the inside out,” said Frank Rohde, CEO and Founder of Ownify. “Launching the Ownify Home Fund Colorado is an important step in helping more first-time buyers squeezed out of the market, and Keith’s voice on our Advisory Board – and on the ground in Boulder – gives us exactly the perspective we need. He sees what we see: that the affordability crisis along the Front Range is solvable if you align capital, technology, and community the right way.”
Kegley brings a rare combination of operating, investing, and philanthropic experience to Ownify. He spent 15 years at Microsoft in senior product and emerging-markets roles, served as Vice President of Alliances at XPRIZE, and is a 24-year Partner and Board Member at Social Venture Partners.
“After more than two decades investing in Colorado-based social ventures, I’ve watched the Front Range housing crisis escalate from a problem into an emergency – and I’ve watched a lot of well-intentioned programs fail to move the needle,” said Keith Kegley. “Ownify is the first model I’ve seen that’s structurally built to scale: it doesn’t rely on subsidies, it genuinely presents a better path for renters becoming owners, and it doesn’t ask investors to take a haircut for the sake of impact. The co-investment structure removes the moral hazard that’s plagued the down payment assistance model for decades, gives Colorado families a real path to building wealth, and keeps local capital working in local communities. I joined the Advisory Board to help bring this fund to the Front Range, and to make sure the next teacher, nurse, or first responder who wants to own a home in Colorado actually can.”
“Colorado has tried just about every flavor of down payment assistance, and I’ve evaluated most of them up close,” said Kegley. “The honest assessment is that they help at the margin – they chip in on the down payment, but the buyer still walks into a full mortgage at today’s rates and still carries all of the downside risk if the market turns. Ownify is the first program I’ve seen that lowers the upfront cost, lowers the monthly payment, and removes the risk of being underwater – all at the same time. That’s a structural change, not an incremental one, and it’s why I believe this fund will actually move the needle where past programs haven’t.”
Through the Ownify model, qualified first-time buyers contribute as little as 2% to acquire a home alongside fund capital and then buy incremental equity through dollar-cost averaging to roughly 10% equity over five years. At the end of five years, customers transition to mortgage-based ownership at Fair Market Value, using the accumulated equity to lower their mortgage payments. Investors gain quarterly distributions, K-1 pass-through depreciation, and a pro-rata share of home price appreciation. Compared with a conventional mortgage, families purchasing through Ownify have saved approximately $29,000 on their down payment and approximately $392 per month in housing costs, while building roughly $17,000 in equity within the first two years.
The Ownify Home Fund Colorado is open to accredited investors and accepts cash, IRA, self-directed 401(k), and Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) commitments. For more information, visit https://ownify.com/investors/colorado-home-fund.
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