Diane Yu remembers getting her first mortgage vividly because it was terrifying.
“I was born in China, English is my second language, and I didn’t even know what questions to ask,” she said. “It was such a big, daunting task and I was very scared. I didn’t even understand credit reports or credit history. It was (and is) actually a frightening experience: You have no idea whether you’re going to get approval until the very last minute.”
Yu—whose last company, FreeWheel, sold to Comcast in 2014—started Tidalwave, which builds agentic AI to simplify the mortgage process. Tidalwave’s tech is directly integrated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, automates the evaluation of mortgage documents, and provides real-time, multilingual feedback to borrowers. Cofounded by Yu, Jack Deng, and Cheng Li in 2023, the startup has now raised its $22 million Series A, Fortune has exclusively learned. Permanent Capital led the round, with participation from homebuilding giant D.R. Horton and Engineering Capital.
“When people are applying for mortgages, they’re scared—they have no idea what’s on their credit report, and don’t know if they’re qualified,” said Yu. “They wait for 45 days. They’ve submitted their entire life’s worth of a track record. Officers say, ‘I got this information, and I’m going to submit it to my underwriting department.’ Then, you don’t hear from them until they next ask for more information.”
Tidalwave is looking to speed that up, with the goal of processing north of 200,000 loans yearly. (That’s roughly 4% of the estimated $1.46 trillion in 2026 projected U.S. mortgage originations. Tidalwave declined to disclose its current loan volume.)
Yu believes AI can discernibly improve parts of the mortgage process. For example: She believes AI can move the needle on loan officer efficiency and offer better support and transparency to borrowers—more clear, multilingual support can allow prospective homeowners to ask “dumb questions” more readily. But there are complexities of the housing crisis that AI cannot fix, especially around macroeconomic forces like high interest rates and systemic issues around housing affordability.
“I think the industry does realize something has to change,” said Yu. “Especially with the current interest rate environment, the cost of buying a home is just continuously going up. People just can’t afford it, so the industry has to look at creative ways to reduce costs, so they can bring the benefit back to borrowers.”
Home buying will always have high-stakes complexities and require an alarming amount of paperwork. But at least when it comes to the future, Yu does believe that, over time, getting a mortgage will become a more instantaneous process.
“The younger generation, used to interacting 100% digitally, would expect results right away,” said Yu. “In the future, I do think this process is going to shrink dramatically, where very quickly you can just get a house.”
See you Monday,
Allie Garfinkle
X:@agarfinks
Email:alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Venture Deals
- PhysicalIntelligence, a San Francisco-based developer of AI models designed for the physical world, raised $600 million in funding. CapitalG led the round and was joined by existing investors LuxCapital, ThriveCapital, JeffBezos, and others.
- Flexion, a Zurich, Switzerland-based developer of an intelligent software layer designed to power humanoid robots, raised $50 million in Series A funding from DSTGlobal Partners, NVentures, Redalpine, ProsusVentures, and MoonfireVentures.
- SorteraTechnologies, a Markle, Ind.-based aluminum sorting company, raised $45 million in funding. T.RowePriceAssociates and VXICapital led the round and were joined by YamahaMotorVentures, OverlayCapital, and others.
- Archetype AI, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based physical AI company, raised $35 million in Series A funding. IAGCapitalPartners and HitachiVentures led the round and were joined by BezosExpeditions, Venrock, AmazonIndustrial InnovationFund, SamsungVentures, SystemiqCapital, and others.
- Vyntelligence, a London, U.K.-based agentic video intelligence work platform, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Morgan Stanley Investment Management and BlumeEquity led the round.
- Wispr, a San Francisco-based voice-to-text AI model designed to produce polished writing from voice entries, raised $25 million in a Series A extension. NotableCapital led the round and was joined by FlightFund.
- CassidyBio, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based company developing an AI-powered genomic foundation model designed to develop better gene-editing therapies, raised $8 million in seed funding. Ahren Innovation Capital led the round and was joined by LoolVentures, 10DVC, and others.
- MadeCard, a New York City-based credit card designed for homeowners, raised $8 million in seed funding from JumpCapital, VillageGlobal, and others.
- ParallaxWorlds, a San Francisco-based developer of simulation software to stress-test robots before they are deployed, raised $4 million in seed funding. PearVC led the round and was joined by GSFutures, KakaoVentures, Lightscape Partners, and others.
- Logistica OS, a Berlin, Germany-based AI operating system for supply chains, raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding. NAP led the round and was joined by Daphni and others.
Funds + Funds of Funds
- BVP Forge, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, raised $1 billion for its second fund focused on technology and services companies.
- MeronCapital, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based venture capital firm, raised $70 million for its third fund focused on pre-seed and seed investments in AI, cybersecurity, fintech, digital health, climate tech, and robotics.
Private Equity
- TPG invested $1 billion in Tata Consultancy Services, a Mumbai, India-based IT services and consulting firm.
- Blackstone invested $50 million in Norm Ai, a New York City-based AI-powered legal compliance company.
- AgellusCapital acquired HighGrovePartners, an Atlanta, Ga.-based commercial landscaping services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Encore, backed by Blackstone, acquired Eclipse, a London, U.K.-based event production company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- ATIS, a portfolio company of ThomasStreetCapitalPartners, acquired M.A.N. ElevatorInspections, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based elevator inspection company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- TPG acquired a minority stake in Healthcademia, a Manchester, U.K.-based health care education company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Other
- Palo Alto Networks agreed to acquire Chronosphere, a New York City-based observability platform designed for microservices and containers. Financial terms were not disclosed.