Lama AI Raises Series A to Scale AI-Native Loan Origination for Banks Nationwide

Lama AI Raises Series A to Scale Proven AI-Native Loan Origination for Banks Nationwide

Led by EJF Ventures, the round brings Lama AI’s total funding to over $20 million as dozens of banks use its AI-native platform to process billions in loan volume and reduce loan decisioning from weeks to minutes in targeted workflows

Lama AI, the AI-native loan origination platform built for community and regional banks, today announced a Series A led by EJF Ventures, bringing total funding raised to over $20 million, supporting its 3x year-over-year growth. The company’s platform is already in production at dozens of community and regional banks, including SouthState Bank, Colony Bank, Capital Community Bank, First Bank, Gate City Bank, and Luminate Bank, and has processed billions of dollars in loan volume since launch.

For community and regional banks, the next phase of competition is about more than digitizing loan origination. It is about creating the capacity to grow lending, move faster, and improve the borrower experience without adding proportional headcount or compromising credit discipline. That is the mandate facing CEOs and boards as they look to expand lending while protecting the standards that define a strong credit culture.

One of the clearest gaps in the market is small business lending, including government-guaranteed lending. These types of loans are attractive for banks and credit unions, as well as to the local businesses in the communities that they serve, but the economics are difficult: underwriting a small-dollar loan can cost as much as larger ones. As a result, many banks are forced to limit their focus on this segment, even when borrower demand and community impact are significant.

Legacy loan origination systems were not built to solve this problem. Static forms, rigid workflows, and professional-services-heavy implementations struggle to account for the thousands of borrower variations, document exceptions, policy nuances, and edge cases that define SMB and SBA lending. 

"If you are going to employ AI, credit underwriting is one of the most impactful places to start"  – Chris Nichols, President, Institutional Banking at SouthState Bank.

Lama AI was built to meet that need. Its AI-native loan origination platform automates and accelerates the full lending workflow, from intake and borrower assistance to document collection, spreading, underwriting, decisioning, approval, closing, and portfolio monitoring. The platform is designed to operate within each bank’s existing policies, credit standards, approval processes, and compliance requirements, giving lending teams a faster and more scalable way to process loans without replacing the human-judgment.

While many banks first adopted Lama AI to address the SMB and SBA lending gap, the platform extended its capabilities and supports full loan lifecycle for SMB and Commercial Lending products including, C&I, CRE, construction, SBA, and other specialty product needs. For institutions that already have legacy technology in place, Lama’s modular approach can serve as a practical entry point for AI-driven automation in the highest-friction segments..

The Series A round was led by EJF Ventures, the fintech arm of EJF Capital. Additional participants include Fin Capital, 1st & Main, banking veterans, and existing investors: Viola Ventures, Hetz Ventures, and SixThirty. Lama AI will use the funding to expand its go-to-market and customer success teams, and support the growing demand from community and regional banks nationwide. Lama AI will continue investing in AI capabilities purpose-built for regulated financial institutions.

"If you are going to employ AI, credit underwriting is one of the most impactful places to start. If you are tackling credit underwriting, Lama AI should be in the conversation," said Chris Nichols, President, Institutional Banking at SouthState Bank.

“Community and regional banks should not have to choose between speed and discipline,” said Omri Yacubovich, CEO and co-founder of Lama AI. “They know their customers, understand local credit, and have the relationships borrowers trust. Lama AI gives them the infrastructure to move faster while preserving the judgment, oversight, and compliance standards that make them strong partners.”

“Legacy lending technology platforms were built for a pre-AI world, and newer ones tend to pick a lane. Lama is different – it automates the full range of commercial lending, from SBA to C&I to CRE, and deploys alongside a lender's existing systems rather than forcing a rip-and-replace. Backed by a proven founding team and growing traction across community and regional banks, we believe Lama could become the defining next-generation platform in a multi-billion-dollar market. We couldn't be more excited to lead this round and partner with Omri and the team.” said Michael Cherepnin, a Partner at EJF Ventures.

"Community and regional banks have been underserved by legacy lending infrastructure for decades. Lama AI is one of the few companies we've seen that's built a platform designed for how these institutions actually operate — and the market traction reflects that," said Jake Fuchs, Principal at Fin Capital. "We're proud to back Omri and the team.".