Elio Mortgage emerges from stealth with a $5.1M pre-seed led by Motive Partners and Social Leverage

Elio Mortgage has launched with $5.1 million in pre-seed funding led by Motive Partners and Social Leverage. Jeff Horing, co-founder and managing director of Insight Partners, joined as an angel investor.

The New York company was founded by CEO Oren Michaely and Arad Lev Ari. Rather than selling software to lenders, Elio runs its own licensed mortgage brokerage on a proprietary agentic platform, with engineers and loan officers working side by side. Its brokerage arm is Hightide Mortgage, founded by chief brokerage officer Steven Carey.

Loan officers get an AI agent that handles pre-qualification, document processing and closing. Through Elio Embedded, the same platform works as the mortgage arm for RIAs, real estate agents, home builders and single-family rental operators.

The funding goes to product development, nationwide expansion of its licensed operations and hiring loan officers.