Behind the Scenes: How Takara Was Born
- Diana Soriano
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
Every company has its origin story.
Ours didn’t start with a launch or a pitch deck - it began with a simple, honest question:
“What else is broken - and worth fixing?”
It Started with a Conversation
Jonathan Arad, now CEO of Takara, has just wrapped up a two-year venture called Contigo, focused on shared equity mortgages. The experience opened doors to regulators, banks, and investors - and revealed just how outdated parts of the U.S. mortgage system really were.
“When Contigo ended, we didn’t walk away empty-handed. Eran Peter (Takara’s CFO) and I sat down and asked: what else can we fix?”
Together, they built a list of market inefficiencies and sent it to Former CEO of Freddie Mac. One concept stood out - the massive gap between a mortgage’s face value and its true economic value.
Former CEO of Freddie Mac’s response reframed the entire idea in a single word:
“This already exists. It’s called defeasance.”
From Academic Insight to Structural Opportunity
Eran Peter, Takara’s CFO, has been following similar threads. While working on mortgage solutions like RF2, he was closely watching regulation in Israel, where a new law allowed external refinancing - but lacked required disclosure on fair market value.
That reminded Eran of a powerful insight from Prof. John Geanakoplos’s Yale lectures - the idea that borrowers hold an embedded option when interest rates rise, not just when they fall.
Then came a turning point:
A Freddie Mac research note quantified that option, showing trillions in trapped value inside legacy U.S. mortgages.
Eran drafted a white paper proposing that borrowers could exit by delivering a replicating portfolio of risk-free bonds, rather than cash. Former CEO of Freddie Mac confirmed it - it already worked in commercial real estate.
Living the Problem: From Frustration to Innovation
Itamar Bar-Tura, Takara’s third co-founder and CTO, wasn’t just bringing technical talent - he was experiencing the problem firsthand.
“I’m the only founder with a low-interest mortgage. I locked in a great rate during 2021, but later I realized I was stuck. I couldn’t move or sell without losing it.”
With a background in mathematics and computer science, Itamar has been working with Eran on analytical tools for banks and credit unions. Now, he had both the personal motivation and the technical ability to help build something better.
“Once we saw how widespread the lock-in issue was, building a solution wasn’t just possible - it felt necessary.”
Turning an Idea Into a System
For six months, the founders stress-tested the idea.
They spoke with regulators, credit unions leaders, mortgage lawyers, and capital market partners - refining and reshaping the model with every conversation.
“We wanted to build something structural,” says Jonathan, “not a workaround.”
They took inspiration from the Danish mortgage market, where borrowers can buy back their debt at market value, and from the Israeli model, where mortgages are portable. But Takara needed to fit the American system - with its unique mix of investor expectations, housing policy, and 30-year fixed-rate norms.
What Takara Is Today
Takara offers a solution that enables market-value mortgage payoffs - helping:
Borrowers unlock mobility
Lenders accelerate turnover
Investors preserve cash flow
Whether it’s a family relocating, a credit union managing legacy loans, or a financial institution looking to hedge duration - Takara brings structure, transparency, and flexibility.
“People look at it and say, this is so simple,” says Jonathan.
“But it took months of pressure-testing and trust to get here.”
And That’s How Takara Was Born
A question
A lecture
A regulation
A mortgage
A single word: defeasance
What began as a friction point became a solution - through listening, learning, and building together.
🔗 Want to learn more? Explore how Takara works →
📬 Talk to our team about implementing market-value payoff at your institution.

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