A class of mortgage marketplaces is leaning into AI to speed up the lending process, with hopes of better serving middle-market deals.
These loans, usually ranging between $5M and $100M, fuel the development of strip malls, small industrial projects and mom-and-pop apartment investments. But the lending market for deals of this size remains vast, decentralized and sometimes overlooked by major players.
Founders of these firms promise that a new era of automation, algorithms and artificial intelligence will match borrowers and lenders more efficiently, speeding up dealmaking and connecting the vast middle market of commercial real estate with better deals boasting lower rates — all without cutting out the broker.
“We recognize the relationship is critical. That’s why we onboard the actual mortgage broker and don’t replace them,” said Mitch Ginsberg, founder of mortgage marketplace CommLoan. “We’re really creating enormous efficiencies for the mortgage broker with that matching process.”
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Capturing even a fraction of the CRE mortgage market could mean big money for these nascent firms.
Earlier this year, the Mortgage Bankers Association projected that total commercial and multifamily mortgage originations in 2026 would jump 27% year-over-year to $805.5B, up from $633.7B in 2025.
The so-called middle market of commercial real estate lending encompasses roughly 40% of total annual lending, according to Ginsberg. Borrowers in this space often lack the banking and credit relationships that big players and institutional investors have. This part of the market is also where CommLoan focuses.
Traditionally, brokers play the role of matchmaker, helping a borrower find a willing lender for an investment in a small warehouse or a strip mall, for example. That requires independent brokers leaning on personal relationships with banks and cold-calling other financial institutions in pursuit of the best deal.
Despite the inefficient nature of the process, these brokers remain the source of the vast majority of the middle-market loans that lenders would initiate.
Marketplaces or platforms like Lev, Janover and CommLoan, which launched in 2015, seek to provide a better way for those Ginsberg calls the “little guys” to get to a term sheet as quickly as possible.
They are competing with the larger firms that have also quickly adopted AI to rapidly speed up matching between lenders and borrowers.
Eastern Union, a middle-market-focused commercial mortgage brokerage that facilitated roughly $2B in loans last year, has been able to speed up deals with its own in-house AI, CEO Abe Bergman said.
“Real estate business margins have thinned over the last few years,” Bergman said. “This will allow the real estate industry to be able to improve those margins.”
Every commercial mortgage has a “genetic code,” consisting of factors such as the borrower’s credit history and experience with particular property types, as well as market and property conditions, Ginsberg said.
Most lenders get shoehorned into a deal that works but isn’t exactly what they want, he said.
CommLoan uses AI and its proprietary database to save borrowers time and money while lenders get standardized, complete loan applications that better match their lending parameters, Ginsberg said.
The system constantly updates lender demands and can show potential borrowers and brokers varied options, including local banks, credit unions and private lending options.
CommLoan has onboarded more than 1,000 lenders into its network. Last year, the platform helped facilitate about $650M in loans. It is on track to double that in 2026.
Examples include a $5.4M refinance of a car wash in Marshall, Texas, and a $4.9M loan to fund the acquisition of a single-tenant office in Los Angeles. The company also plans to execute a reverse merger with Windtree Therapeutics Inc. later this year in a bid to go public.
CommLoan is also expanding its range. The company helped close a $195M loan for the Kali Hotel in Hollywood Park, a development in Inglewood, California, adjacent to SoFi Stadium.
Using CommLoan, developer Kali Chaudhary secured a 6.3% interest rate with Bank of America’s high net worth group. Previously, other brokers had quoted loans at 10.5% or more, meaning the CommLoan deal shaved off roughly $850K a year in interest charges.
On complex transactions like that one, especially involving construction loans, it is important to have a human broker in the loop as the “last mile” to help close the deal, Shaar said.
Chaudhary’s group, KPC, is also behind a bid for the infamous unfinished Oceanwide Tower in Downtown Los Angeles, which Ginsberg hopes CommLoan may be able to play mortgage matchmaker for as well.
“Even a borrower like that, Dr. Kali Chaudhary, who’s the sponsor, who certainly has substantial net worth and liquidity, could go to any lender that he wanted to,” Ginsberg said. “Using our matching technology, we were able to match him to the lender that would best suit his particular situation at the time.”
CommLoan operates nationally and covers all property types, from car washes and self-storage to multifamily. Right now, industrial and retail deals are particularly hot, especially in Phoenix in regions near the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plant, Ginsberg said.
YieldStack, founded last year by recent college graduates Rommin Adl and Daniel Chesney, encountered the same challenge and market opportunity: accelerate commercial lending technology, which is a decade behind residential mortgage tech, and provide a combination of technological matching and advisory services to help mom-and-pop borrowers succeed.
“We’re not here to sell software,” Chesney said. “We’re providing a service business, but using AI to remove friction and be quicker and cheaper than the other guys.”