Alight, a provider of industry-specific real-time financial optimization applications and a two-time winner of HousingWire’s HW Tech100, announced this week that it closed on a Series A round of funding, in which the company raised $11 million.
Leading the funding round was Caterpillar Venture Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar, the construction and manufacturing giant.
Yes, you read that right.
Alight currently has two business verticals, mortgages and mining.
Alight’s Mortgage Solutions platform integrates into a lender’s general ledger, loan origination systems and capital market providers to create real-time financial forecasts and scenarios, whereas Alight’s Mining Solutions platform uses “enterprise-class, cloud-based applications (to) give mining executives the ability to forecast the future and immediately see the financial impact of every decision.”
According to a press release, “nearly 40 of the nation’s largest independent mortgage banking firms, including half of the firms in the top 10,” currently use Alight’s mortgage platform.
And now, Caterpillar’s venture capital arm is investing in the company and helping it expand.
“We’re always looking to invest in new ways that could help Caterpillar’s customers improve their profitability, especially through the use of technology,” said Jim Hawkins, managing director of mining technology for Caterpillar. “Alight’s technologies can allow our customers to see the financial impact of a machine or technology purchases as well as operational decisions before they’re made.”
Also taking part in the funding were a “consortium of noted Bay Area tech investors, led by Alight chairman, Steven Berger,” the company said in a release.
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Caterpillar as a strategic partner – it’s among the most innovative and transformational companies in the world and together, the industry and our customers will enjoy the power of a global leader coupled with speed and nimbleness that a company like Alight can apply when bringing new innovations to market,” Michele McGovern, Alight’s CEO, said. “It’s the perfect match.”
The company plans to use the $11 million raised in this funding round to grow its mining and mortgage industry verticals, and plans to expand into new industries.
The company said that it plans to add two new verticals in 2017, with pharmaceuticals scheduled to launch in the third quarter.
