Penn student launches AI mortgage startup through Y Combinator

The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with Wharton and Engineering senior Brianna Lin, who launched an artificial intelligence mortgage startup through Y Combinator’s Winter 2026 batch of investments.

The startup — called Copperlane and developed alongside Princeton University student Athan Zhang — was accepted into the Winter 2026 batch of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator that provides early-stage companies with funding and mentorship. Copperlane is the first startup born from a merger during a YC batch.

Lin highlighted the company’s focus on increasing the number of loans that lenders can process each month. She characterized Copperlane as part of a broader push to modernize the mortgage industry, where much of the loan origination process remains manual.

According to Lin, who studied finance and computer science with a minor in mathematics before taking leave, Penn’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology helped shape her approach to building Copperlane.

She added that the program provided exposure to entrepreneurs, investors, and faculty who supported her decision to pursue a startup, specifically pointing to the M&T Program Director Gad Allon as an early mentor.

“He gave us a lot of real advice on how we should approach a startup, what we should build for, and whether or not now is the right time to build a startup,” Lin said.

Both founders also mentioned their familiarity with the mortgage industry while describing how they identified the market’s problem. Lin’s parents worked for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, while Zhang said both his parents worked at government-owned mortgage companies.

“That’s how we found out about the problem,” Lin told the DP. “What we’re building right now is helping mortgage banks essentially process more loans by making the entire workflow of processing a loan much faster.”

Lin and Zhang began working together during Y Combinator after entering the program separately and later experiencing co-founder splits. Zhang said their decision to partner was driven by a shared approach to building.

“It’s been a really interesting journey for us,” Zhang said. “The earlier the startup stage is, it’s really more about the people working on the idea and less about the idea. I have no fears for the company, because we work really well together.”

The company’s AI system, called Penny, operates as an assistant to loan officers rather than replacing them entirely. Zhang said loan officers remain involved in reviewing decisions before they are finalized.

He added that loan officers have responded positively to the product, particularly because it reduces repetitive tasks. For the loan officers, Zhang explained, it is “very much a quality of life thing.”

The two stated that their experience in Y Combinator emphasized the importance of working on longterm problems.

“Make sure you’re working on an idea that you will see yourself working on for 10 years down the road,” Zhang said.

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