Newrez Invests In Homevision, Partners On Ai Underwriting Platform

Newrez has invested in mortgage technology firm HomeVision and is partnering with the company to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered underwriting platform for the mortgage industry, the companies announced Wednesday.

The deal marks the first time Newrez — which is owned by asset manager Rithm Capital — has made a direct investment in a technology company. The move comes as the multichannel lender adds partnerships amid rapid adoption of AI tools across the mortgage industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.

HomeVision is led by co-founder Jeff Foster, who previously worked for Credit Suisse, Apollo Global Management and Blackstone. He also served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the housing market recovery.

The tech company already provides the mortgage industry with an AI-powered collateral underwriting tool known as MIRA, which Newrez has been using for the past six months. The technology reads documents and makes decisions on standardized tasks, allowing underwriters to focus on exceptions and more complex elements of each loan file.

“Their investment accelerates our ability to expand beyond collateral review and deliver more intelligent, scalable underwriting solutions across the mortgage origination process,” Foster said in a statement.

New platform

Under the new partnership, the companies plan to extend the platform to additional underwriting components — including income, assets and credit. The goal is to reduce origination costs, improve accuracy and deliver faster underwriting decisions for borrowers.

Baron Silverstein, president of Newrez, said in an interview with HousingWire that the technology will be designed to help lenders better navigate mortgage market volatility.

“The expectation is that it’s going to have significant benefits for us — not only to make our existing team members more efficient but also to provide flexible capacity.”

The new platform is expected to begin rolling out in 2026, with HomeVision delivering additional tools over the next 18 months. 

Silverstein said the platform will initially focus on more standardized, commoditized mortgages before expanding into more complex products, including loans in the nonqualified mortgage (non-QM) market.

Buy vs. build

At Newrez, the technology will first be deployed in direct lending channels — retail branches and call centers — before expanding into the wholesale and correspondent channels. Human underwriters will continue to play a critical role in the process, Silverstein added. 

“We continue to expect that we’re going to take market share,” Silverstein said. “I don’t have an expectation we’re going to have significant staff reductions in bringing this. I think it’s going to make our existing workforce significantly more efficient.” 

HomeVision will also commercialize the platform for other lenders, a factor that influenced Newrez’s decision to take a minority stake in the company.

Newrez invests heavily in proprietary technology, including its H2O origination platform and Servicing Director for servicing operations. The company employs roughly 400 technology professionals among its workforce of 6,000.

But the lender expects to pursue additional partnerships going forward. With so many AI tools available, Silverstein said the company will be thoughtful about what to build or buy — decisions to be made on a case-by-case basis.