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Casca

YC S23

San Francisco, US · Founded 2023 · 40 employees · Hiring · 20 known investors

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Casca provides business loan eligibility checks, with a focus on helping small businesses access SBA loans.

Also known as Cascading AI Inc. · Core AI technologies Inc. · Cascading AI · CORE Ai · CORE Ai, Cascading AI

AI & Machine LearningFintechArtificial IntelligenceConversational BankingMachine LearningFinanceUnited States of AmericaAmerica / Canada

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S23)

Casca was founded in 2023 by Lukas Haffer.

LHLukas Haffer
Lukas HafferCEO & FounderPreviously, he held the role of Chief of Staff for the European Market at Avaloq, a core banking software provider. He holds an MBA from Stanford University.
LH
Lukas Haffer Isaiah WilliamsFounder
AA
Adlon AdamsCOO
DN
Dalena NguyenTechnical Recruiter
BD
Blake DunsonChief Information Security Officer
CT
Chris TowerVice President of Engineering
YS
Youssef SebtiFounding Product Manager
IW
Isaiah WilliamsFounderuntil 2026
RP
Robin ParkVice President of Engineeringformer
PM
Paayal MaheshwariHead of Recruitingformer

Investors · 20

Litquidity Ventureslisted by Litquidity Ventures

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Peterson Ventureslisted by Peterson VenturesSalt Lake City · $250K – $2.5M

How we know: Peterson Ventures's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · prnewswire.com · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Sarah Smithlisted by Sarah SmithMenlo Park · $250Kvia Sarah Smith · inferred

How we know: Sarah Smith's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

The 23 Fundlisted by The 23 Fund

How we know: The 23 Fund's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Y Combinatorlisted by Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K

How we know: the Y Combinator directory · funding news · prnewswire.com · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Andreessen HorowitzreportedMenlo Park · $500K – $50M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

APA Venture PartnersreportedSan Francisco

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Canapi VenturesreportedNew York

How we know: funding news · prnewswire.com · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

LiveOak VenturesreportedAustin · $500K – $10M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Olive Tree CapitalreportedBoston

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Sequoia CapitalreportedMenlo Park · $100K – $50M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

The Fintech FundreportedNew York · $150K – $200K

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

The MBA Fundreported

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Also in the syndicate · 6

Alliance Funding GroupBankwell BankHuntington National BankLive Oak BankLive Oak VenturesThe Sarah Smith Fund

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$29M disclosed across 1 of 2 rounds · 2024–2025

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

The YC application· Summer 2023 batch

Alumni Q&A

What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?
The founders point to outdated banking IT, including decades-old legacy systems, failed RPA efforts, and heavy manual work, as the core problem. They cite slow loan application processes and look-to-book churn rates of 65-80%, drawing on their years of experience in the financial industry.
What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?
The founders aim to unlock $1T in value for banks globally and improve the banking experience for billions of customers.

Summarized from the founders' answers on their Y Combinator profile.

Related companies · 10

NcinonCino provides a cloud-based, AI-powered banking platform with role-based AI agents that support commercial, consumer, small business, and mortgage lending, account opening, and portfolio and operations analytics. It serves banks and financial institutions worldwide, combining automation for tasks like credit monitoring and financial document spreading with human bankers.
BankjoyBankjoy is a digital banking platform that enables community banks and credit unions to deliver digital experiences comparable to large banks. The platform includes mobile apps, account management tools, fraud prevention, and vertical banking solutions for reaching niche markets.
WorkatastartupY Combinator's job board where candidates use one profile to apply to roles at YC-backed startups.
FINNY AIFINNY is a growth platform that identifies and targets financial prospects for advisors through data aggregation and automated outreach, enabling personalized client acquisition at scale.
Blue OnionBlue Onion provides a unified financial data platform for e-commerce businesses that reconciles transaction data across multiple systems to create a single source of truth. The platform enables faster financial close processes, clearer margin visibility, and more accurate AI-powered financial operations without requiring engineering implementation.
Turnkey LenderTurnKey Lender develops AI-driven lending automation software with a built-in decision engine that handles credit scoring, loan origination, and servicing for lenders ranging from international banks to local retail and non-profit lenders. Its platform is offered in consumer, commercial, embedded lending, and Pay Later editions to clients in over 50 countries.
CatamaranCatamaran is a risk decision platform that helps corporates, brokers, insurers and investors analyze and transfer complex risks using data extraction, AI analysis, and structured risk transfer. The platform serves the insurance and risk management industry by consolidating insurance data, modeling risk scenarios, and connecting clients with capital providers.
LyonLyon trains a foundation model from scratch on a company's own customer event data, producing per-customer embeddings that power downstream predictions such as churn, credit risk, fraud, collections, income, and cross-sell. The model runs inside the customer's own cloud (AWS, GCP, or Azure) with the customer owning the weights and keeping data isolated.
C3 AIC3 AI develops an enterprise AI platform that unifies data, intelligent agents, and domain-specific AI models to help large organizations make faster and better operational decisions. The platform serves enterprise customers across multiple industries including energy, manufacturing, and asset management.
CascadeCascade builds an agentic AI layer that sits across enterprise systems of record such as HRIS, ITSM, and benefits administration, deploying AI agents that interpret employee intent, enforce policy, and execute end-to-end workflows like onboarding, equipment requests, and benefits enrollment. It targets large organizations' HR and IT operations in what it calls the Agentic Workflow Automation category.

Companies working in the same space as Casca.

Legal entities · 2

corporate structure
Cascading AI Inc.
Core AI technologies Inc.

In the news

Casca Named Banking and Financial Services Winner in the 2026 BIG Innovation Awardsprnewswire.com · Jan 2026AI lender Casca secures $29m Series A fundingfintech.global · Aug 2025Casca Raises $29M in Series A Fundingfinsmes.com · Aug 2025AI-Native Loan Origination Platform Casca Raises $29 Million to Replace Legacy Lendingprnewswire.com · Aug 2025Series A announcementcascading.ai · Aug 2025FIs Explore GenAI in SMB Lending Despite Customer Concernspymnts.com · Feb 2024Cascading AI Secures $3.9 Million in Pre-Seed Funding to Revolutionize the Banking Industry with its AI-native Loan Origination Systemprnewswire.com · Feb 2024Y Combinator Demo Day 2023: Our favorites Day 2techcrunch.com · Sep 2023

Frequently asked questions

What does Casca do?
Casca provides business loan eligibility checks, with a focus on helping small businesses access SBA loans.
Who founded Casca?
Casca was founded by Lukas Haffer in 2023.
Who are Casca's investors?
Casca's investors include Clocktower Ventures, Litquidity Ventures, Peterson Ventures, Sarah Smith, The 23 Fund, Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, APA Venture Partners and 6 more.
How much funding has Casca raised?
Casca has disclosed $29M raised across 1 of its 2 known rounds.
Where is Casca headquartered?
Casca is headquartered in San Francisco, US.