“I was born in China, English is my second language, and I didn’t even know what questions to ask,” she said. “It was such a big, daunting task and I was very scared. I didn’t even understand credit reports or credit history. It was (and is) actually a frightening experience: You have no idea whether you’re going to get approval until the very last minute.”
Yu—whose last company, FreeWheel, sold to Comcast in 2014—started Tidalwave, which builds agentic AI to simplify the mortgage process. Tidalwave’s tech is directly integrated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, automates the evaluation of mortgage documents, and provides real-time, multilingual feedback to borrowers. Cofounded by Yu, Jack Deng, and Cheng Li in 2023, the startup has now raised its $22 million Series A, Fortune has exclusively learned. Permanent Capital led the round, with participation from homebuilding giant D.R. Horton and Engineering Capital.
“When people are applying for mortgages, they’re scared—they have no idea what’s on their credit report, and don’t know if they’re qualified,” said Yu. “They wait for 45 days. They’ve submitted their entire life’s worth of a track record. Officers say, ‘I got this information, and I’m going to submit it to my underwriting department.’ Then, you don’t hear from them until they next ask for more information.”
