The pitch sounds almost too simple: What if artificial intelligence could handle the entire mess of underwriting a commercial loan?
That's the wager Lama AI is making. And investors, it seems, are buying in. The New York-based startup announced in late June it has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by EJF Ventures, pushing its total capital haul past $20 million since launching four years ago. The company says its revenue has tripled year-over-year, though it declined to share hard numbers.
For banks drowning in paperwork—and there are many—the appeal is obvious. Commercial lending remains one of banking's most manual, document-heavy processes. Loan officers still spend hours chasing down tax returns, spreading financials by hand, and writing credit memos that read like small novels. Lama AI's founders, CEO Omri Yacubovich and CTO Ran Magen, believe much of that can be automated.
Their platform handles what they call the "full stack" of loan origination: gathering documents, analyzing financial statements, generating underwriting reports, even drafting closing paperwork. The system works across multiple loan categories—small business lending, commercial real estate, construction financing, and SBA 7(a) and 504 loans.
"Agentic AI," the company calls it. The software is designed to transform messy, unstructured data into polished loan applications while assisting underwriters throughout the process. It also monitors portfolios post-closing, tracking covenants and handling modifications.
Banks Sign On (Some Publicly, Some Not)
Lama AI claims it has secured several community and regional banks as customers, though the transparency around those relationships varies considerably.
Gate City Bank, a North Dakota-based institution, publicly announced its implementation in mid-January 2025. Beyond that, things get murkier. The company lists SouthState Bank, Colony Bank, Capital Community Bank, First Bank, and Luminate Bank among its production users in company materials—though these partnerships haven't been independently confirmed through bank-issued press releases. A degree of caution is warranted here.
Still, Lama AI has racked up some legitimate third-party validation. Mastercard brought the startup into its Engage Partner Program in April 2024. The Bridge, a commercial lending marketplace, announced a partnership last August. And the Alloy Labs banking consortium, which counts more than 40 financial institutions as members, has also signed on. Last summer, IDC MarketScape named Lama AI a "Major Player" in corporate loan origination—a category that didn't exist a few years ago.
Timing the Market
The funding comes at an interesting moment for banking technology. Financial institutions are pouring money into AI tools, desperate to cut costs and speed up operations. But they're also notoriously cautious adopters, particularly when it comes to core lending processes where mistakes can be expensive.
EJF Ventures, the investment arm of EJF Capital that focuses on fintech, led the round. Fin Capital and 1st & Main Growth Partners also participated. Lama AI's existing backers—SixThirty, Viola Ventures, and Hetz Ventures—all reinvested.
The company operates with a split footprint, maintaining offices in New York and San Francisco while keeping engineering operations in Tel Aviv. It's a structure that's become increasingly common among fintech startups looking to tap into both U.S. markets and Israeli technical talent.
Lama AI previously raised $9 million in seed funding back in October 2022, co-led by Viola Ventures and Hetz Ventures. The new capital, the company says, will fuel expansion across more U.S. banks.
Whether those banks will embrace AI-driven underwriting at scale remains an open question. The technology is promising. The sales cycle, as any fintech founder will tell you, is long.
