Companies

Casca

cascading.ai

Casca provides AI-native loan-origination software that helps banks and lenders automate small-business lending.

HQSan Francisco, California, United States
Employees1-50
5 active roles
Jobs checked 19h ago
FintechAI ApplicationB2B SaaS

About

Casca builds an AI-native loan-origination platform for FDIC-insured banks, SBA lenders, and other non-bank lenders, automating applications, document collection, KYB, and underwriting. It differentiates through end-to-end workflow automation and compliant, human-in-the-loop AI, with claimed outcomes of up to 90% less manual effort and 10x more loans.

Market

Casca competes in AI-native digital loan origination and lending automation for small-business, commercial, and SBA lending, targeting regulated financial institutions and non-bank lenders. It differentiates through an end-to-end AI platform rather than a conventional loan-origination system: its offering combines generative AI assistance, document and KYB/KYC automation, cash-flow underwriting, data-provider integrations, and digital approvals. Casca positions these capabilities around materially faster processing and lower manual effort, claiming up to 90% less manual work and commercial-loan processing up to 10 times faster than other fintechs.

Target Customers

Casca primarily serves FDIC-insured banks, non-bank lenders, and leading SBA lenders originating small-business, commercial, and SBA loans. Its primary users and buyers are bank lending, product, underwriting, and operations teams seeking to automate origination and launch loan products faster.

At a Glance

Problem

Casca addresses the slow, cumbersome economics of small-business and SBA lending. Manual, technology-light workflows can keep loans open for 90 days or longer, while legacy application processes may take borrowers up to two hours and require substantial loan-officer assistance. That drives application abandonment, high customer-acquisition costs, and delayed access to capital. The clearest wedge is small-dollar SBA 7(a) lending: Live Oak Express loans can be as large as $350,000, and automating their processing could move borrowers from application to funding in roughly seven to 10 days instead of about two weeks after document submission. Smaller SBA loans also command a 9% to 13% premium from investors, making faster, lower-cost origination economically attractive for lenders.

Product / Service

Casca sells an AI-native loan origination system to banks and non-bank lenders. Its workflow combines digital applications, an AI Loan Assistant that communicates with applicants, automated document collection and analysis, KYB checks, credit-bureau integrations, instant financial-ratio calculations, application tracking, digital approvals, and document generation. The system is designed for regulated financial institutions, using human-in-the-loop monitoring and bank-specific compliance policies rather than treating generative AI as an unsupervised black box.

The delivery model is enterprise lending software supported by implementation and operational assistance. Casca reports that lenders can automate about 90% of manual origination work, respond to applicants in two to three minutes, reduce loan-cycle times by about five days, and increase application conversion substantially. In one deployment, a legacy application that took up to two hours was replaced with an experience often completed in under seven minutes, with the new workflow deployed in two weeks.

Market

Casca competes in vertical fintech SaaS and AI-powered loan-origination software, focused initially on SBA, small-business, and commercial lending for FDIC-insured banks, community banks, and non-bank lenders. The alternative to Casca is not only another fintech platform but also fragmented manual processes and aging loan-origination systems. A third-party market map names Lama AI, Origence, and Numerated as competitors, while Casca positions itself around deeper SBA specialization, faster processing, and responsible AI for regulated lenders.

Casca has clear commercial traction rather than being merely pre-revenue in market presence, although the available evidence does not disclose revenue. Founded in 2023, it raised a $29 million Series A in August 2025, bringing total funding to $33 million. Its reported customers and partners include Bankwell, Live Oak Bank, Huntington National Bank, and Celtic Bank; Live Oak and Huntington were the number-one and number-two SBA 7(a) lenders, and Celtic became a new top-10 bank customer in 2026. During its pilot, Live Oak Express originations reached $56 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from $38 million in the prior quarter, with the bank targeting at least $750 million in annual originations over the next few years.

Founders & Leadership

Lukas HafferFounder
Co-Founder / CEO
Isaiah WilliamsFounder
Co-Founder / former CTO
Derick GuanFounder
Co-Founder & Builder
Adlon AdamsChief Operating Officer / Chief Revenue Officer

Funding History

2024-02
Pre-seed$3.9M

Peterson Ventures

2025-08
Series A$29M

Canapi Ventures

Recent News

2026-05-19
Best Fintechs to Work For 2026

Casca was named to American Banker’s 2026 Best Fintechs to Work For list, recognized for its mission-driven culture focused on helping small businesses access SBA loans.

2026-04-21partnership
Tax Guard and Casca Partner to Bring Verified IRS Data into AI-Powered Lending

Tax Guard and Casca announced a partnership intended to bring verified IRS data into Casca’s AI-powered lending workflows. The announcement also notes Casca’s $29 million Series A and $33 million in total funding.

2025-09-18funding
Why Canapi is Leading Casca’s Series A

Canapi Ventures explained its decision to lead Casca’s $29 million Series A, citing the company’s AI-native lending technology and its potential to help banks serve small businesses faster and more fairly.

2025-08-21funding
Casca: $29 Million Series A Secured For Replacing Legacy Lending

Pulse2 reported that Casca completed a $29 million Series A to replace legacy lending, bringing the company’s total funding to $33 million.

2025-08-19funding
AI-Native Loan Origination Platform Casca Raises $29 Million to Replace Legacy Lending

Casca announced a $29 million Series A, bringing total funding to $33 million. The company said it would use the capital to scale operations, expand its team, and accelerate go-to-market efforts with additional financial institutions.

2025-08-19partnership
Huntington & Live Oak Deploy Gen AI-Powered Lending

Live Oak Bank and Huntington National Bank partnered with Casca to bring generative AI to SBA 7(a) lending for loans under $350,000. Live Oak is using Casca to automate underwriting through Live Oak Express, while Huntington planned broader adoption across origination, applications, and borrower support.

2025-08-19funding
Casca Raises $29 Million Series A for AI Loan Origination

Finovate covered Casca’s $29 million Series A, led by Canapi Ventures with participation from customers including Live Oak, Huntington, and Bankwell. The round brought Casca’s total funding to $33 million.

Active Roles

5
Technical Recruiter$130k – $170k
San Francisco/HR & Recruiting/34d ago
San Francisco/Legal/34d ago
San Francisco/Forward-Deployed Engineer/34d ago
San Francisco/Other/34d ago
San Francisco/Operations/34d ago

Business Model

Casca uses a B2B enterprise-software model, selling access to its AI-native loan-origination platform and assistants to FDIC-insured banks, SBA lenders, and other non-bank lenders through demo-led sales. The corpus does not disclose whether contracts are subscription-based, usage-based, or implementation-priced.

Products

AI-native Loan Origination SystemAI Loan AssistantAutomated document analysis, verification, generation, and electronic closingKYB/KYC, credit analysis, cash-flow underwriting, and automated decisioningSBA lending workflow and SBA loan analytics

Customers

Live Oak BankHuntington National BankBankwell Bank

Tech Stack

Generative AIAI-native loan-origination automationAutomated document analysis and generationReal-time transaction-data and cash-flow analyticsAutomated KYB/KYC and credit-bureau integrationsPredictive analytics

Competitors

Lama AI
Origence
Numerated
nCino
Biz2X
Conductiv