Home equity access and artificial intelligence-powered means of reducing operational costs are two opportunities investors are prioritizing, with recent funding showered on fintechs aiming to provide solutions that specifically address those needs.
With venture capital interest
VC is rolling in as lenders continue to
At the same time, mortgage research shows lenders still
Here are a few of the names the investors think have potential this year, with products running the gamut from loan officer assistants to credit cards and more.
Trovy attracts $15 million Series A raise
A New York-based fintech, Trovy is looking to provide homeowners financing options through accrued equity, helping them avoid other high-interest forms of consumer debt. With a flagship home equity-backed credit card product introduced last year, the company is launching a line of credit called 1Loan this summer.
In late June, the company announced a $15 million Series A round, led by Left Lane Capital. Participation also came from existing seed investors Kleiner Perkins, DCM Ventures and Camber Creek. Total funding for the company now stands at $25 million.
Founded by TJ Milani and Ashley Harris, who also serve as CEO and chief operating officer, Trovy is currently operational in 27 states and licensed in 30.
"Home equity is one of the largest and most underutilized categories in consumer finance, and we believe Trovy is building the definitive modern platform for it," said Left Lane Capital Partner Henry Toole in a press release. "The team has a wealth of fintech experience from Figure, SoFi, and JPMorgan."
Copperlane scores $4M in seed round, introduces AI loan officer assistant
A 2026 member of Y Combinator's class of startups, Copperlane found itself on the receiving end of a June $4.1 million seed round led by TQ Ventures. Additional participation came from Y Combinator, US News Digital Ventures, Eight Capital and angel investors.
Founded in 2025 by Athan Zhang and Brianna Lin, who both come from families with strong professional backgrounds of mortgage and secondary market operations, the company's leaders hope to tap into their knowledge of industry details and create an AI-native origination platform that will lead to cost savings. Key to the goal is Copperlane's current loan-officer assistant, Penny, designed to face both the LO and the customer.
Penny can comb through scores of documents in minutes to provide lenders with recommendations, the company said. For the borrower, it offers around-the-clock support via text, voice or email correspondence thanks to agentic abilities.
"Penny is the one doing a lot of heavy lifting when interacting with borrowers, and so we by default have more data and understand this person more. That is how we're able to deliver them better end result," Zhang said in a recent interview.
Balerion AI rolls out a loan intelligence platform
Seeking to automate the full origination cycle from income verification to closing, reducing costs in the process, Balerion unveiled its agentic loan intelligence platform in April this year.
Product rollout came on the heels of a $6 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins. Adding capital to the round was Formation and BoxGroup.
The strength of Balerion's system lies in its ability to evaluate data points across the loan lifecycle simultaneously, which expedites decision-making, company leaders said. Co-founder Naren Krishna serves as CEO of the company, which launched last year.
"We provide a unified reasoning engine that ingests the full loan file," Balerion co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Vishal Satish said.
"That end-to-end architecture is what lets us catch the discrepancies and income anomalies that siloed tools miss entirely."
Upside raises $20 million for housing stability platform
Designed in cooperation with key players in healthcare and insurance industries, Upside expects to use investment to scale its platform, which provides a curated AI-backed affordable housing inventory database and workforce benefit spanning home navigation, rental and mortgage support.
Led by former healthcare executives, the Florida-based company started Upside to address the effects of housing insecurity on medical outcomes, partnering with insurance providers and employers.
The $20 million Series A round was led by Aquiline with Flare Capital Partners. Further capital support came from existing investors, including 645 Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Triple Impact Capital and Techstars.
"Housing instability is one of the most persistent drivers of avoidable healthcare spend," said Aquiline Partner Dante La Ruffa in a press release.
"We see significant opportunities to accelerate Upside's momentum through Aquiline's strategic connectivity across health plan, payer and broker channels, as well as through product adjacencies that further expand the company's value proposition for all key stakeholders," he added.
