Optimal Blue has acquired CRM and marketing automation platform Usherpa, extending its reach into how LOs identify prospects, nurture relationships, and turn those contacts into loans.
The Oct. 12 acquisition brings borrower engagement into a business whose product, pricing, and eligibility technology is used by more than 200,000 originators, according to Optimal Blue. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The planned connection could help address two related questions: which borrowers to contact and which financing options to discuss. Optimal Blue says combining the systems will help lenders connect relevant products and pricing with borrowers earlier in the origination process.
“This acquisition is an important step towards creating a single originator command center that assists originators to move from lead to loan more efficiently,” said Joe Tyrrell, Optimal Blue’s CEO.
Connecting Pricing With The Borrower Database
Usherpa’s existing platform helps users stay in touch with past customers, prospects, referral sources, and business partners through personalized, automated marketing.
Usherpa says its CRM also analyzes users’ databases to identify opportunities and presents daily notifications. Its enterprise offering includes tools for corporate marketing teams to create branded email campaigns and materials, along with customized LOS integrations and APIs connecting to more than 20 fintech services.
The acquisition would bring those relationship and marketing functions closer to the pricing and eligibility information originators use to evaluate financing options.
Optimal Blue already offers a tool connecting pricing with borrower outreach. Launched in June 2025 with Uplist, Capture for Originators analyzes closed-loan portfolios for refinance opportunities using current lender pricing and fees, estimated closing costs, and borrower savings. It also generates borrower presentations and prefilled outreach emails.
The Usherpa acquisition expands that effort into broader relationship management and automated marketing across past customers, prospects, and referral partners. Optimal Blue has not announced how Usherpa will work with Capture.
“Eligibility, pricing intelligence, and borrower engagement have traditionally lived in separate systems and workflows,” said Erin Wester, Optimal Blue’s chief product officer. “Bringing these capabilities together and enabling an expanded feedback loop creates opportunities for originators to better understand whom to engage, when to reach them, and with which financing options.”
A CRM Acquisition With A Promise Of Choice
The purchase also puts Optimal Blue directly into the CRM business while it continues working with outside technology providers.
The company said lenders will retain the flexibility to choose their CRM and other vendors.
“While our vision is to provide a single, comprehensive offering for originators, we value the role that our partners play in bringing both key capabilities and choice, which is why we will always maintain an open ecosystem,” Tyrrell said.
Optimal Blue said it will continue investing in Usherpa, with future development informed by customer feedback and changing market needs.
Fannie Mae Locks Move Into The Pricing Workflow
In a separate Oct. 12 announcement, Optimal Blue said its direct-lock functionality now integrates with Fannie Mae’s Pricing & Execution–Whole Loan platform, allowing lock desk users to execute eligible best-efforts locks without leaving its product, pricing, and eligibility engine.
Lock requests flow directly between the systems, with confirmations returned automatically within Optimal Blue. The integration eliminates separate portal logins and manual data reentry, potentially reducing entry errors and execution time while providing an audit trail.
Fannie Mae is the largest participating investor to date in Optimal Blue’s direct-lock program, which launched in 2025.
