Casca
Casca is an AI-native loan origination platform that helps FDIC-insured community banks and top SBA lenders automate small business, SBA, USDA, and commercial loan processing, serving named customers such as Live Oak Bank, Huntington, Celtic Bank, and Bankwell Bank.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2023
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Casca does
Casca (legal entity Cascading AI, Inc.) is a San Francisco-based fintech founded in 2023 by Stanford alumni Lukas Haffer (CEO), Adlon Adams (COO), Derick Guan (CFO), and Isaiah Williams (CTO). The company sells an AI-native, cloud-first loan origination system (LOS) to FDIC-insured community banks, regional banks, and nationally leading SBA lenders who need to originate small business, SBA 7(a), USDA, and small commercial loans more quickly than legacy LOS platforms permit. Named customers include the #1 and #2 SBA 7(a) lenders in the U.S. — Live Oak Bank and Huntington National Bank — along with Celtic Bank, Bankwell Bank, and TF Lending.
The platform is structured as a modular core (Online Loan Application, AI Loan Assistant, Applicant Portal, Credit Analysis) deployed across four lending verticals: SBA, USDA, Small Business, and Small Commercial lending, with a separate SBA Loan Broker referral portal as an additional channel. Technology spans NLP, generative AI, voice/audio transcription, predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and document analysis for 100+ document types, supported by 30+ native integrations (Tax Guard/IRS, SBA E-Tran, credit bureaus). The company is SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 1 Type 2 certified. Vendor-reported performance claims include 10-30x faster processing versus industry averages, end-to-end loan processing in 1-4 days, 90% reduction in manual underwriting effort, and deployment in 2-3 weeks versus year-long traditional LOS rollouts.
Casca operates a pure enterprise SaaS business model with annual billing and quote-based, undisclosed pricing — no public tiers. GTM combines direct enterprise field sales to bank executives with a referral/broker partner program and PR-driven brand awareness through William Mills Agency. As of August 2025 the company has raised $33 million total ($3.9M pre-seed in February 2024 led by Peterson Ventures; $29M Series A in August 2025 led by Canapi Ventures), with strategic equity participation from three of its bank customers. Revenue is not publicly disclosed, and the company remains in early commercial stage with 11-50 employees.
Casca firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Casca
- Legal name
- Cascading AI, Inc.
- Website
- https://cascading.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2023
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Casca is an AI-native loan origination platform that helps FDIC-insured community banks and top SBA lenders automate small business, SBA, USDA, and commercial loan processing, serving named customers such as Live Oak Bank, Huntington, Celtic Bank, and Bankwell Bank.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Casca industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Loan Origination Software
- NAICS
- Mortgage and Nonmortgage Loan Brokers (52231), Credit Intermediation and Related Activities (522)
- SIC
- Mortgage Bankers & Loan Correspondents (6162), Loan Brokers (6163)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Loan Origination Platforms (LOS) & Digital Application Journeys (FSAGAHAA)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- SBA/USDA Government-Backed Loan Intermediation (FSAEAEAI)
Keywords
Where Casca is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Casca business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Platform Subscription: AI-native loan origination platform provided as Software as a Service to banks and financial institutions. Banks pay for access to the platform to originate commercial and small business loans.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise SaaS subscription for banks and lenders |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Casca product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Casca sells an AI-native Loan Origination System (LOS) that FDIC-insured banks, regional banks, credit unions, and top SBA lenders use to originate small business, SBA, USDA, and small commercial loans. The platform automates approximately 90% of manual origination work—online applications, 24/7 AI-driven applicant Q&A, document collection and analysis of 100+ document types, KYB/KYC checks, credit and cash-flow underwriting, SBA E-Tran submission, and decisioning—reducing loan cycle times from roughly two weeks to 1–4 days and enabling deployment in 2–3 weeks versus year-long legacy LOS rollouts.
Product overview
Casca is an AI-native loan origination platform (Cascading AI, Inc.) founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco. The offering is architected as a platform-plus-modules system: the core Casca AI-Native Loan Origination System unifies four platform modules — Online Loan Application, AI Loan Assistant, Applicant Portal, and Credit Analysis — across four lending verticals: Small Business Lending, SBA Lending (with E-Tran integration), USDA Lending, and Small Commercial Lending. The platform is sold to FDIC-insured banks, regional banks, and credit unions and processes loans up to 30x faster than industry averages (1–4 days end-to-end). The SBA Loan Broker Portal provides a separate channel for loan brokers. The company also offers an SBA Loan Analytics add-on for historical benchmarking.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Casca AI-Native Loan Origination System An AI-native, cloud-first loan origination system (LOS) that enables FDIC-insured banks, regional banks, and credit unions to originate small business, SBA, commercial, and USDA loans, automating online applications, AI-powered Q&A, document collection, KYB checks, credit analysis, and loan decisioning. Replaces clunky PDFs and 15-year-old legacy LOS front-ends with a modern digital application that delivers 3x higher conversion and 90% reduction in manual effort.
- SBA Lending Solution An SBA 7(a) lending solution built on Casca's AI-native LOS, featuring direct SBA E-Tran submission, SOP-compliant SBA eligibility checks, AI-powered KYB and credit analysis, automated document collection, and an AI Loan Assistant trained on SBA-specific processes. Reduces loan cycle times by 5 days or more and supports lenders such as Live Oak Express in scaling small-dollar SBA lending profitably.
- USDA Lending Solution A USDA lending solution covering Business & Industry (B&I), Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), and Community Facilities (CF) loans, with automated generation and validation of USDA Form 4279-1, 4279-2, and 940, intelligent document verification, an AI loan assistant trained on USDA guidelines, automated guarantee documentation preparation, and compliance tracking. Compresses USDA loan processing from months down to weeks.
- Small Commercial Lending Solution A commercial lending solution for large commercial loans and commercial real estate (CRE), featuring customizable application forms, a commercial loan applicant portal, AI-powered document analysis for complex commercial transactions, and white-labeled, professionally branded customer experience.
- SBA Loan Broker Portal A referral partner portal for SBA loan brokers enabling deal submissions in minutes with instant eligibility checks, approvals in as fast as 48 hours, and closings in as little as 10 days. Supports two deal submission methods (email submission and secure application link sharing) and assigns partners unique referral links with dedicated support.
Quantifiable outcome
- 10x faster loan processing
- +8 more outcomes
Companies that use Casca
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Casca technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability10 records
Feature10 records
Casca partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered flagship customer, technology partner and marketing partner.
- Celtic Bankflagship customerCeltic Bank, one of the nation's top-ten SBA 7(a) lenders since 2013, partnered with Casca to power its SBA lending program. Casca's cloud-first architecture enabled Celtic to move from contract to configuration in weeks.
- Live Oak Bancsharesflagship customerLive Oak Bancshares, the #1 SBA 7(a) lender, is co-designing and piloting Casca's platform for its Live Oak Express small-dollar lending program since November 2025.
- Tax Guard (Cogency Global)technology partnerTax Guard partnered with Casca to integrate verified IRS tax transcript data into Casca's automated lending workflow, enabling automated borrower creditworthiness and fraud risk assessments.
- William Mills Agencymarketing partnerWilliam Mills Agency was hired by Casca for public relations services to enhance brand awareness as it advances responsible AI in small business lending.
Scale indicators16 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Casca competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- nCino: Cloud-native bank operating system with a loan origination module widely deployed at commercial and community banks. Explicitly named by Casca as a competitor and serves the same FDIC-insured bank buyer with overlapping SBA and small-business lending functionality.
- Blend: Digital banking platform providing consumer and small-business loan origination, account opening, and mortgage workflows to banks and credit unions. Explicitly cited by Casca as a fintech competitor targeting the same community-bank modernization buyer.
- Abrigo: Provider of commercial loan origination, credit risk, and compliance software to community and regional banks. Directly comparable to Casca's commercial and small-business lending modules targeting the same FDIC-insured mid-tier bank segment.
- Baker Hill: Commercial loan origination and portfolio risk management software for community banks and credit unions. Competes head-on with Casca's small commercial lending and credit analysis modules for the same bank-buyer use cases.
Emerging players
- Lendio: SMB loan broker marketplace and small-business lending platform connecting borrowers with 75+ lenders. Comparable to Casca's SBA Loan Broker Portal and small-business lending focus, though Lendio operates on a marketplace rather than SaaS model.
- Upstart: AI-powered lending marketplace originating personal, auto, and small-business loans through bank partners. Comparable to Casca in applying AI-native underwriting to bank-channel lending, but focuses on consumer credit rather than SBA/government-backed loans.
- Zest AI: AI underwriting software deployed at banks and credit unions to improve credit decisioning. Comparable to Casca's predictive analytics and credit-analysis modules, though Zest focuses on consumer credit and is a complement rather than full LOS replacement.
Broad incumbents
- Finastra: Large global core banking and loan origination vendor serving universal, regional, and community banks. Provides overlapping commercial and SMB lending capabilities, but as part of a much broader portfolio rather than a focused SBA/USDA solution.
- Salesforce Financial Services Cloud: CRM and workflow platform tailored for banks and lenders, with embedded loan origination and relationship-management capabilities. Comparable buyer (commercial bank relationship managers) and use cases, but as a broad platform rather than a specialized SBA/USDA LOS.
Others
- Socure: AI-driven identity verification and KYC/KYB provider used by banks and fintechs. Comparable to Casca's automated KYB/KYC and fraud-detection modules, and listed among Casca's potential integrations as an ecosystem participant in the same bank KYC stack.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Casca social profiles
Digital presenceCasca compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Casca financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Casca leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Casca funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors9 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Casca M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Casca
What does Casca do?
Casca sells an AI-native Loan Origination System (LOS) that FDIC-insured banks, regional banks, credit unions, and top SBA lenders use to originate small business, SBA, USDA, and small commercial loans. The platform automates approximately 90% of manual origination work—online applications, 24/7 AI-driven applicant Q&A, document collection and analysis of 100+ document types, KYB/KYC checks, credit and cash-flow underwriting, SBA E-Tran submission, and decisioning—reducing loan cycle times from roughly two weeks to 1–4 days and enabling deployment in 2–3 weeks versus year-long legacy LOS rollouts.
Is Casca a public or private company?
Casca is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Casca founded?
Casca was founded in 2023. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Casca based?
Casca is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Casca make money?
One revenue line is on record: saaS Platform Subscription.
Who are Casca's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are nCino, Blend, Abrigo and Baker Hill. Emerging players are Lendio, Upstart and Zest AI. Broad incumbents are Finastra and Salesforce Financial Services Cloud. Socure is listed as an others.
Does Casca have an API?
No public API is recorded for Casca.
What industry is Casca in?
Casca's product category is Loan Origination Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAGAHAA, Loan Origination Platforms (LOS) & Digital Application Journeys, with a secondary code of FSAEAEAI, SBA/USDA Government-Backed Loan Intermediation. Its NAICS code is 52231 and its SIC code is 6162.