Already earning high praise from a quartet of finance companies that often operate in the subprime space, Salient announced on Monday that it has secured $60 million in funding to reinforce operations as an artificial intelligence-powered financial services technology provider.

Fueling the funding are Andreesen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, Michael Ovitz, and Y Combinator.

Salient said through a news release that the capital will be used to expand its comprehensive loan servicing platform that is geared to transform how lenders and financial institutions approach collections, compliance monitoring, and customer communications.

“We’re fundamentally changing how financial institutions approach loan servicing,” Salient CEO and co-founder Ari Malik said in the news release, noting that servicing remains one of the most manual, outdated, and fragmented areas of financial services, relying on siloed systems, labor-heavy processes, and reactive compliance methods.

“Our AI-powered platform doesn’t just automate customer interactions, it intelligently handles complex downstream workflows while ensuring regulatory compliance,” Malik continued. “We’re enabling lenders to improve recovery rates, reduce operational costs, and enhance customer experiences simultaneously.”

Salient’s platform combines three core offerings:

—AI agent platform: Automates customer communications across multiple channels.

—AI compliance monitoring suite: Comprehensive compliance oversight of all lender interactions.

—Servicing automation platform: Provides deep portfolio insights, fraud detection, and automated workflow capabilities, including insurance filing.

Since launching in 2023, Salient said it has processed more than $1 billion in transactions, helping lenders cut handle times by 60%. The company is already working with Westlake Financial, American Credit Acceptance, Exeter Finance, and three publicly listed banks.

“Salient has been an amazing early partner for our organization,” Westlake Financial CEO Ian Anderson said in the news release. “Their AI platform has helped generate savings of $12 million per year. What’s remarkable is that we’ve achieved these operational efficiencies while actually reducing customer friction. The AI handles routine interactions flawlessly, allowing our remaining human agents to focus on complex cases that require personal attention.”

Consumer Portfolio Services president Mike Lavin added, “Salient has delivered to us a best practices AI Lending Platform that has enabled us to effectively scale our business during a growth period that has resulted in cost efficiencies we never could have realized in years past. The Salient team is creative, timely and professional.

“The sky is the limit for this company, and I am excited to implement future AI based programs that they develop into our lending platform. I trust the team and the technology,” Lavin went on to say.

The company reiterated that this $60 million investment will fuel Salient’s expansion into additional downstream servicing workflows that have traditionally required significant manual oversight.

Salient plans to enhance its platform with advanced capabilities for credit dispute resolution, title management automation, complaint handling and resolution, and other complex servicing operations that extend beyond traditional collections activities.

“The funding allows us to accelerate development of comprehensive automation tools that address the full spectrum of loan servicing challenges,” Malik said. “Our vision is to create an end-to-end AI-powered loan servicing ecosystem that handles everything from initial customer onboarding through charge off.

“Working hand in hand with some of the most tech-forward lenders has allowed to accelerate development significantly,” Lavin added.

Two of those finance companies praised Salient’s performance, already thinking of other ways to deploy Salient’s solutions across their businesses.

“Salient has been an amazing partner for American Credit Acceptance as we are learning the power of artificial intelligence to unlock new opportunities in our business,” American Credit Acceptance chairman Curt Sidden said. “From significant compliance enhancements to an improved customer service experience, the power of the Salient product has been transformational for our company.

“Importantly, the Salient team is amazing in their ability to integrate their products into our existing operation with relative ease,” Sidden continued. “We look forward to continuing to utilize Salient to enhance company performance.”

Pete Agostinelli is president of Mid-Atlantic Finance.

“As early adopters of AI solutions, we initially saw it as a supplemental part of our daily operations,” Agostinelli said. “We were pleasantly surprised by the versatility of Salient’s platform and how seamlessly it could be implemented across various functions.

“With the rapid pace of Salient’s technological advancement, the potential use cases now feel virtually limitless. While cost reduction was a key motivator, the real value has been in the platform’s ability to help drive revenue and deliver a more consistent, high-quality experience for our end users,” Agostinelli went on to say.