Building the Future of Mortgage Technology: Our $22M Series A

READ: Fortune, Tidalwave raises $22M Series A to improve the mortgage process with AI

Six months ago, we started conversations with some of the largest mortgage lenders in the country. They all told us the same thing: the mortgage process is broken. Loan officers spend hours on data entry. Borrowers wait weeks for decisions that should take minutes. And despite billions invested in "digital transformation," the average mortgage still takes 43 days to close.

Today, we're announcing our $22M Series A led by Permanent Capital, with participation from D.R. Horton, Inc., the nation's largest homebuilder, and a follow-on from Engineering Capital. This brings our total funding to $24M.

Why This Matters

The mortgage industry processes 6.5 million loans annually in the U.S. alone. Each loan requires hundreds of manual tasks across disconnected systems. Loan officers toggle between 8-10 different tools just to verify a borrower's income and employment. Documents get lost. Data gets entered incorrectly. Borrowers get frustrated and abandon applications.

Freddie Mac research shows that lenders who deploy digital automation tools reduce origination costs by $1,500 per loan while improving profit margins and customer satisfaction. But most "automation" in mortgage tech is just workflow software that still requires constant human intervention.

We built something different.

How Agentic AI Changes Everything

Tidalwave uses agentic AI—autonomous software agents that handle complete mortgage tasks from start to finish with minimal oversight. Our platform connects directly to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to deliver instant underwriting decisions, while integrations with Plaid, Argyle, and Truv enable real-time income, employment, and asset verification. It eliminates the back-and-forth document collection that stretches closings from days into weeks.

For borrowers, this means a radically simpler experience. No more uploading bank statements or waiting days for verification. Our AI-powered guidance supports them through every step, including tailored assistance for Spanish-speaking clients. For lenders, it means faster closings, lower costs, and loan officers who can focus on helping borrowers instead of chasing paperwork.

Early Results

Over the past six months, industry leaders including NEXA Lending, First Colony Mortgage, and Mortgage Solutions adopted our platform. With this funding, we're on track to power over 200,000 loans annually—approximately 4% of all U.S. mortgage originations forecast for 2025 by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

D.R. Horton's decision to become both an investor and enterprise customer validates what we've been building. As Mark Winter, CEO of DHI Mortgage, put it: "Both of our companies share the goal of advancing the mortgage process through AI by empowering our people and providing powerful new tools to enhance quality and efficiency."

What's Next

This funding accelerates our ability to ship AI agents faster and get them into the hands of more lenders and borrowers. We're expanding our team, deepening our integrations, and building new capabilities that will make the mortgage process even faster and more accessible.

The mortgage industry has been stuck with the same inefficient processes for decades. We're changing that.

If you're a lender ready to modernize your origination process, or a borrower who wants to see what a truly digital mortgage experience looks like, visit tidalwave.com.

— Diane Yu, CEO & Co-founder