Chestnut

Chestnut, founded in January 2025 by Spencer Brown, is the first AI mortgage lender and is licensed to operate in Texas and Colorado. The company recently completed YC X25 and is backed by Y Combinator, Olive Tree Capital (Uber, Postmates, Ramp), and other investors. Brown's prior startup built software used by a top-10 mortgage lender to power over $85 billion in loan volume and all aspects of loan processing, and created a system of record for mortgage lending that powered 2% of US mortgages annually. Chestnut was founded to challenge the $128 billion mortgage market head-on because traditional lenders weren't poised to adapt to AI.