Mortgage servicing fintech Haven partners with AI startup Kastle

Two servicing technology companies will work together to provide artificial intelligence-based voice agents to mortgage borrowers.

Havena platform that integrates servicing features into a lender’s brand, will partner with AI startup Kastle, the companies announced Tuesday. The collaboration, which the partners say will reduce maintenance operations costs, will go live in the first quarter of next year for Haven customers.

“Our partnership with Kastle is an important step toward our mission to remove complexity from the mortgage experience and provide a comprehensive platform for homeowners,” said Jonathan Chao, co-founder and chief product officer of Haven, in a statement press.

Kastle and Haven finished first and second last month at The National Mortgage News Innovation Challenge among a group of 20 industrial technology suppliers. Kastle demonstrated his AI voice agent during a live phone call, and the judges later praised the software’s natural conversation with an AI agent resembling Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Haven Wallet allows borrowers to pay their mortgage and purchase other home services on a single platform, regardless of who owns their mortgage servicing rights. The platform consolidates services under the original lender’s brand, and the partnership will enable a single telephone contact for mortgage-related inquiries.

Haven, founded in 2020, claims to have already doubled the recovery rate for its mortgage partners. Repairers this summer retained only 20% of owners looking to refinance, and experts have highlighted the competition for a possible refi wave will be more fierce than yesterday.

Kastle offers both AI voice and text agents for service providers, as well as editable sales scripts. The startup claims it can track call intent, whereas live agents don’t always define why consumers called. Co-founders Rishi Choudhary and Nitish Poddar said the platform can handle fluctuations in call volume and is available around the clock.

Next year, the AI-based offering will comply with real estate regulations and cybersecurity standardsand companies will encrypt customers’ personally identifiable information, they said Tuesday.