Cloud banking software provider Blend is turning to automation platform Ocrolus to classify documents and capture data to speed up processing of mortgage applications.
Blend, which helps clients including Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank process more than $5 billion in loans per day, will embed Ocrolus’ “Human-in-the-Loop” (HITL) document analysis solution within the Blend platform.
The partnership represents “a notable milestone in Blend’s broader mission to streamline and fully automate all aspects of loan originations,” the companies said. “Ocrolus’ verticalized financial services expertise in the areas of mortgage, consumer, and small business lending, serves as an ideal embedded technology for the Blend platform long-term.”
The partnership’s initial focus will be on document automation for mortgage applications, and “potentially extending into other business areas in the future.”
Consumers using Blend’s platform can shop for real estate agents, insurance carriers, and other service providers through integrated marketplaces that are configured by Blend’s clients, which also include Opendoor, Fairway Independent Mortgage, KeyBank, and Mr. Cooper.
To help provide homebuyers with end-to-end services, Blend operates its own title insurance agency and property and casualty insurance agency. Blend, which raised $360 million in a July initial public offering, acquired a national title insurance and settlement services provider, Title365, from Mr. Cooper Group in a $422 million deal that closed on June 30.
Ocrolus is also on a growth trajectory after raising $80 million in a Series C funding round in September that valued the company at more than $500 million. The company is accepting applications for more than 60 openings in departments including engineering, data, operations and human resources.
Automating the processing of mortgage applications, underwriting, approvals and closings is a top priority for lenders looking to stay competitive and cut costs.
Solutions are increasingly cloud-based, with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce all promoting services tailored to help digital mortgage service providers digitize and process mortgage applications and documents.
The nation’s biggest mortgage lender, Rocket Mortgage, is making its mortgage origination technology available to banks and credit unions as an end-to-end “mortgage-as-a-service” through Salesforce Financial Services Cloud.
Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, which integrates cloud services across Microsoft’s public cloud offerings, launched on Nov. 1 with partners including Mortgage365 and Finastra, the developer of the Fusion Mortgagebot platform.
Google Cloud’s purpose-built mortgage solution, Lending DocAI, launched in April, helping partners like Roostify and Mr. Cooper automate data entry and create and customizing document processing workflows.
Running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Black Knight’s AI-powered mortgage solution, Underwriter Assist, uses Amazon Textract and mortgage-specific algorithms developed by Black Knight to extract data from documents like W2s and pay stubs.
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