Indian American founders raise $24 million for Kastle, an AI platform serving financial institutions

# Kastle Raises $24 Million to Expand AI Agents Across Financial Services

Kastle, an applied artificial intelligence company focused on financial services, has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round as it looks to expand the use of AI agents across lending and other financial operations.

The San Francisco-based startup was founded by Rishi Choudhary and Nitish Poddar and has developed KastleOS, an AI agent operating platform designed specifically for consumer lending.

The platform is built to automate work throughout the loan lifecycle, enabling financial institutions to handle larger volumes of business without requiring a complete replacement of their existing technology infrastructure.

Insight Partners led the latest funding round, with existing investors Y Combinator and Commerce Ventures participating again. Fifth Wall joined the round as a new investor.

Financial institutions are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to automate repetitive processes, improve productivity and increase operational capacity. However, replacing the core systems that support lending operations can require years of work and create substantial migration, integration and operational risks.

Kastle is taking a different approach by deploying AI agents on top of the infrastructure financial institutions already have in place.

The company's agents are designed to manage high-volume operational tasks while allowing human employees to remain involved in more complex cases that require additional judgment or oversight.

“For years, enterprises have effectively been presented with a false choice: accept the limitations of legacy operations or endure a long and risky replacement of the systems at the heart of their business,” said Rishi Choudhary, co-founder and CEO of Kastle.

“Kastle creates a third path. We give financial institutions an AI workforce that can operate across the systems they already have, so they can capture the benefits of AI now — not five years from now,” Choudhary added.

Kastle initially plans to concentrate on consumer lending, an area where loan applications and related workflows involve significant amounts of repetitive administrative work.

According to the company, its AI agents have already processed more than $1.8 billion in transactions, providing an early indication of how its technology is being applied in financial services operations.

The company says its platform is designed to address more than productivity. Financial institutions also require AI systems capable of operating within regulatory and compliance frameworks while connecting with existing technology environments.

Rebecca Liu-Doyle, managing director at Insight Partners, said Kastle's AI agents are designed to handle complex financial workflows while meeting regulatory requirements.

“Kastle deploys AI agents that can navigate complexity, pass the bar on regulatory rigor, and get high-stakes work done without waiting for a multiyear transformation,” Liu-Doyle said.

The new funding will support Kastle's expansion across North American financial institutions and help the company increase its engineering, product and go-to-market teams.

The company also plans to accelerate customer deployments as demand grows for AI systems that can work alongside existing financial infrastructure.

Kastle's approach reflects a broader shift in enterprise AI, where companies are increasingly looking to integrate intelligent systems into established workflows rather than immediately replacing the technology platforms on which their operations depend.

For lenders, the strategy could provide a way to introduce AI-driven automation while maintaining existing systems and human oversight across critical financial processes.