Two Orlando firms are infusing cash into artificial intelligence-powered mortgage advising company Home Lending Pal Inc.
Home Lending Pal closed a bridge investment round with Orlando-based Cogent Bancorp Inc. and Orlando-based DeepWork Capital LLC, the companies announced April 7. While the size of the investment was not disclosed, the money primes Orlando-based Home Lending Pal to seek a larger Series A investment round and transition to a fully commercial product.
Home Lending Pal’s mortgage advising platform makes it easier for prospective homebuyers to research and apply for mortgage loans. Home Lending Pal hides user identification information from lenders to eliminate lending discrimination based on race, age or sex.
Cogent is focused on the “future of banking,” and Home Lending Pal’s innovations caught the company’s attention, President Chirag Bhavsar said in a prepared statement. “Home Lending Pal is one of many investments Cogent Bancorp has made this year alone focused on innovative technologies for future-forward banking options.”
Meanwhile, early-stage investment firm DeepWork Capital is “passionate” about investing in Florida companies, DeepWork co-founder and Managing Partner Mitchel Laskey said. “Home Lending Pal is providing much-needed innovation to address inefficiencies and inequities in the mortgage industry.”
Following the investment, DeepWork Capital Vice President Ken Hall joins Home Lending Pal’s advisory board.
While Home Lending Pal has landed prominent partners and investors in the lending and finance sectors, the platform is still advancing, co-founder and CEO Bryan Young told Orlando Inno. “I have a vision of our virtual AI assistant having the ability to have human-like interactions with our users to build a relationship that helps protect and guide them to homeownership. I also want to do more to improve our product functionality and recommendation engine to be more robust.”
Home Lending Pal has raised more than $3.5 million since it was founded in 2017, with many of its investors based in the Orlando area. Home Lending Pal is an example of local investors backing a company with the ability to make a nationwide impact, Charlie Lewis, Waterfall Ventures Investments manager and Orlando Tech Council chair, told Orlando Inno. Waterfall Ventures led Home Lending Pal’s seed round in 2021.
“We have a rally of local capital all coming together from Central Florida to support not only a great company from the area but a great cause that’s tackling a real issue facing the entire nation,” Lewis said.
Young moved to Orlando from Miami in 2020, and Home Lending Pal has since built up a presence in Orlando alongside its Durham, North Carolina operations. The company in March moved into a downtown Orlando office. Home Lending Pal employs 20 full-time employees.
Home Lending Pal’s partners include IBM, Experian, ListHub, AnnieMac and Flagstar Bancorp. The company has also received strategic investments from The Mortgage Collaborative and CUNA Mutual Group’s CMFG Ventures.
Sign up here for The Beat, Orlando Inno’s free newsletter. And be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
