Cloud banking platform Blend is partnering with document automation company Ocrolus to accelerate the digital mortgage lending process, particularly loan originations.

Blend will embed Ocrolus’ Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) document analysis solution with its mortgage lending platform, leveraging the application programming interface (API)-based document automation, David Snitkof, vice president of analytics at Ocrolus, told Bank Automation News after Tuesday’s announcement. The API functionality was rolled out Oct. 25 as part of its Build on Ocrolus program, he added.

“The Ocrolus solution for classifying documents, extracting data, detecting questionable content and providing cash flow analytics is available as a web app or API call from another application, such as Blend,” Snitkof told BAN. “The big benefit to the API model is fast integration with a client’s existing tech stack and no need to train users on a new application.”

Ocrolus uses machine learning and optical character recognition technologies to digitize and pull data from paper documents. Among the use cases are classifying financial documents, capturing key data fields, detecting fraud and analyzing cash flows, according to a company statement.

Initially, Blend will use Ocrolus to classify documents and capture data for mortgage applications, with plans to potentially extend into consumer and small business lending applications.