Finova buys AI startup Cubit Labs to automate broker workflows

Finova, the UK's largest cloud-based mortgage, savings and lending software provider, has acquired Cubit Labs, an artificial intelligence company that builds automation and compliance tools for mortgage intermediaries. The deal, announced on 1 July 2026, folds Cubit Labs' founders and team into Finova as the company pushes to embed AI across the broker-to-lender journey. Financial terms were not disclosed.

What is Finova buying, and why now?

Cubit Labs has built AI-native tools aimed at mortgage advisers: software that automates manual tasks, tightens compliance checks, and improves how information moves between brokers and lenders. Finova's stated logic is that a large share of the lending journey can be simplified and completed before a formal application is ever submitted, cutting the duplicated data entry and manual administration that still define much of the process.

The timing tracks with where the UK market is heading. Mortgage distribution has shifted decisively toward brokers: the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association projects intermediaries will account for 91% of mortgage business by 2026, breaking the 90% barrier for the first time in the market's history. That structural dominance, up from roughly 62% a decade ago, makes broker-facing technology one of the more defensible bets in mortgage infrastructure. Whoever owns the broker workflow owns a growing majority of UK mortgage origination. Mortgage Solutions

How does this fit Finova's wider strategy?

The acquisition is the latest in a pattern of consolidation. Finova supports more than 60 banks, building societies and specialist lenders alongside a network of over 2,400 brokers, spanning origination, servicing, savings and CRM software. Its lending platform is offered as a whole-market solution (formerly Apprivo) and as MSO, the retail origination product acquired in 2024 when Bain Capital Tech Opportunities invested in Finova and carved MSO out of Iress.

The Cubit Labs deal also builds directly on Finova's move into agentic AI. In early 2026 the company launched Broker Assist, a conversational AI agent built with Covecta that lets brokers query lender-specific criteria in real time without leaving their workflow. Bringing an AI team in-house, rather than partnering, signals that Finova intends to own more of that capability rather than license it. The end goal Finova describes is a single platform connecting origination, decisioning, servicing, data and automation across the full lending lifecycle.

What is the competitive backdrop?

Broker technology is becoming contested ground. The outgoing chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries warned in 2025 that lenders are investing heavily in direct-to-consumer technology precisely because they are reluctant to pay intermediary fees on the vast majority of business flowing through the broker channel. That tension raises the stakes for platform providers: brokers that operate more efficiently, with less administrative drag, are better positioned to defend their share against lenders pushing customers direct. Automation of the pre-application stage is where much of that efficiency battle will be fought.

Why This Matters to FinanceX Readers

The UK mortgage market is consolidating around a handful of infrastructure providers at exactly the moment intermediaries reach peak market share.

For investors, Finova's acqui-hire strategy, backed by Bain Capital, is a signal that mortgage software is being reframed as an AI-automation play rather than a workflow-tooling one, with margin and defensibility increasingly tied to how much of the lending journey can be automated before human underwriting begins. The direction of travel favours platforms that can lock in broker relationships as lenders eye that same distribution. Watch for whether in-house AI capability translates into pricing power, or whether lenders' direct-channel investment erodes the intermediary moat these platforms depend on.