Rocket Mortgage hires Venmo exec to further beef up AI offerings

Rocket Mortgage is adding new depth to its digital expertise with the appointment of Papanii Okai, a former Venmo Chief Technology Officer.

Okai will fill a newly created position of executive vice president of product engineering at the company. In this role, he will work alongside Rocket's senior technology leaders to develop artificial intelligence-driven products "at an even greater velocity," according to the megalender.

The technology executive has nearly two decades of experience in the fintech sector, having worked at JasperSoft, PayPal, and Venmo. He spent almost 11 years in leadership positions at Venmo, where he oversaw the technology and engineering teams responsible for building and scaling products.

He also led the engineering teams at PayPal, holding a number of roles that included serving as platform engineer to the chief technology officer for branded checkout and vice president of engineering for PayPal Giving.

Okai will be tasked with collaborating with engineers, product managers and design teams to build upon Rocket's AI-powered products that "drive innovation and efficiency at every stage of the homebuying process." 

"We've all experienced technology that drives real impact in the world through Papanii's work with Paypal and Venmo. Now, he will be using that skill to help revolutionize the homeownership journey," said Shawn Malhotra, chief technology officer of Rocket Companies, in a press release.

"After serving in roles from a hands-on-keyboard engineer all the way to a CTO at both startups and large international tech companies, Papanii's technical depth and track record for building high-performing and highly engaged teams makes him a valuable asset for us at Rocket," Malhotra added.

The expansion of Rocket's leadership comes during a time in which the lender has amped up the goal of establishing itself as an artificial intelligence leader in housing and real estate. 

In the past year, the Detroit-based company named a CEO with a fintech background, Varun Krishna, and hired its first companywide chief technology officer, Shawn Malhotra. Additionally, the lender brought on board former Sagent CEO Dan Sogorka to join Rocket Pro TPO as general manager.

Concurrently, it has ramped up its technology offerings for the retail and broker segments of its business.

Six months prior, Rocket rolled out its own loan origination system, dubbed Rocket Logic, a platform that uses machine learning to pull important information from borrower documents during the underwriting process.

Rocket will be building out its Rocket Logic platform throughout 2024 and has promised significant additional AI integrations to come. Further developments to its product will automate tasks for mortgage bankers, underwriters and partner brokers, the company said in April.

Late last year Rocket announced it was testing an AI chat interface in the search engine used by its loan officers, brokers and underwriters to find answers to questions that arise during the loan origination process. Two months later, in January, Rocket Mortgage's TPO channel launched an AI tool that will help mortgage brokers update approval letters on the go.

Artificial intelligence technology will support growth in both purchase and refinance, Rocket's CEO said in September. 

"It is going to transform our industry. I say this as a technologist, as an engineer, and as someone who has been deeply involved in this space for years," said Krishna. "We believe in this as a company, and we're focusing on accelerating our leadership in this transformation."