Kastle's AI employee for banks: $2B processed and scaling

Key points

Key takeaways from a YC Root Access interview with Kastle co-founders Nitesh and Rishi Choudhary (September 2026):

AI employee for banks. Kastle automates operations across mortgage servicing and consumer lending; it works with 10 of the top 25 mortgage servicers, including Newrez, and has processed over $2 billion in transactions using AI agents.

Rapid volume growth. A year ago the company processed about $10 million every two months; it now handles that volume daily, after crossing $2 billion in cumulative agent-processed transactions.

Pivot story. The YC S24 batch began with a real-estate AI assistant and then an AI SDR for home buying, reaching about $4,000 MRR before the founders killed the idea roughly a month before demo day to restart on an agent-focused thesis.

Origin insight. After conference outreach, the team learned about 10 million Americans making mortgage payments by phone each month, a regulated workflow no voice-AI player was serving — leading to their first customer shortly before demo day.

Why not rip-and-replace. Kastle deliberately works across banks' existing core systems rather than replacing them, since full migrations in regulated institutions can take 5-10 years; agents sit on top and deliver value quickly.

Compliance focus. Building deterministic, compliant AI behaviour in a regulated industry is a core technical challenge, spanning applied AI, product and infrastructure hiring.

Roadmap. Kastle is extending its AI employee across the full consumer-lending lifecycle — auto loans, credit cards, personal loans and HELOCs — and aims to be the default AI co-worker across financial institutions.

Read more: YC Root Access on YouTube