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A lender service provider that helped build Northeast Bank in Portland, Maine, into one of the nation’s most prolific Small Business Administration lenders is leveraging an $11 million venture capital investment to expand its platform.<\/p>\n
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Newity in Chicago, Ill., received the funding from a group led by venture capital firm CMT Digital. It deployed the cash to scale its artificial-intelligence-driven underwriting infrastructure with the aim of using the added capacity to partner with more banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We get a lot of inbound calls from other banks that have seen what we did with Northeast and would like us to help them tackle small-balance lending,” Newity co-CEO Luke LaHaie told American Banker. “The goal this year is to grow those relationships.”<\/p>\n
Newity has “demonstrated the ability to move quickly and efficiently in one of the most operationally complex lending markets,” Sam Hallene, a CMT Digital partner, said in a press release. “Our investment is intended to support the next phase of growth: scaling origination through automation and expanding long-term liquidity options for small business credit.”<\/p>\n
Newity’s ties with Northeast date back to 2021, when it joined the now-$4.95 billion-asset lender in a program to acquire other banks’ Paycheck Protection Program portfolios and The SBA partnership’s results Now, LaHaie said Newity has used newly developed AI technology to modernize its entire platform. It spent February testing the new systems and brought them online this week.<\/p>\n “We’ll be taking loans start-to-finish through our AI modules,” LaHaie said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n The platform’s AI-enhanced efficiency lets Newity underwrite a greater volume of loans without a corresponding increase in staffing. Newity didn’t engage in significant staff reductions and might even add workers as it partners with more banks, but the level of hiring will be comparatively modest because of the process improvements.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “You have, say, 300 to 500 different data points used to underwrite a loan,” LaHaie said. “The beauty of the new technology we’re launching is it looks at all that stuff at once, so we can get a very quick answer to that customer and practically underwrite their file real time as they’re uploading [information] and working with us.”<\/p>\n “You don’t have to worry about reading the 100-page background check,” LaHaie added. “It’s being fed through all of the checks that you want every time\u2026This helps you add scale, for sure.”<\/p>\n While Newity is focusing first on SBA 7(a) lending, it plans to adapt the new technology to conventional loan types eventually, LaHaie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Newity isn’t alone in turning to AI to streamline its SBA-lending operation. The $15.1 billion-asset Live Oak Bancshares, the nation’s leading 7(a) lender, is engaged in a similar endeavor it’s dubbed Live Oak Express. The company reported a 94% increase in small-dollar SBA lending in calendar year 2025 to $212 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We remain very focused on ramping our Live Oak Express originations,” Live Oak President BJ Losch said in January on a conference call with analysts. Losch noted Live Oak made $12 million in secondary-market sales of Live Oak Express loans in 2025.<\/p>\n At Newity, the AI-driven upgrades put it on the cutting edge, LaHaie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Even early last year\u2026what we’re building wouldn’t have been possible,” LaHaie said. “The technology just didn’t exist and function the way you need it to now. It is kind of incredible just how fast it’s evolving, improving and changing.”<\/p>\n Amidst its growth push, Newity has no plans to lessen its involvement with Northeast. “Our contract is through 2029,” LaHaie said. “Our view is very much: how do we continue to grow and optimize what we’re doing.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n