The McKinney Economic Development Corporation and its Innovation Fund is boosting yet another startup, this one in the land and title industry.

Alanna.ai is an SaaS startup with artificial intelligence software that aims to simplify land and title transactions. With a grant from the MEDC, the startup plans to expand its headquarters in McKinney with 20 new high-tech jobs with an average salary of $90,000 over the next three years.

The funds will bring Alanna.ai’s total number of employees to 27 and increase its footprint on Redbud Boulevard by 3,000 square feet.

If you’ve been following along, MEDC’s Innovation Fund, an incentive-based fund that aims to spur and accelerate the growth of innovation-focused companies, has generated 11 new tech headquarters, relocations, and expansions over the past eight months.

The startups that have been part of the fund include Blockit, a healthcare SaaS company; EnginSoft, an engineering company in the field of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE); CourMed, a crowdsourced healthcare delivery platform; and MyTelemedicine, a virtual platform that provides the healthcare industry with technology and an extensive API suite.

So far, that’s amounted to nearly 300 new jobs in the area.

“We’re focused on attracting very specific technology sectors with the Innovation Fund and it’s great to see companies within our targeted sectors continue to apply,” Danny Chavez, the senior vice president at MEDC, said in a statement. “Artificial intelligence companies are super exciting to work with and Alanna.ai has such a platform for growth, this really is just the beginning for their industry’s disruption.”

According to Chavez, Alanna.ai is one of the largest startups MEDC has invested in so far. He and his team have streamlined the economic development process to attract futuristic industries to McKinney, which includes the growing AI sector.

Alanna.ai enables AI-based communication with its smart and “trainable” software that integrates with title insurance closing software.

Powered by IBM’s Watson, the platform handles routine issues like document requests, wire instruction requests, seller net sheets, and buyer closing costs estimates, per a statement. It also has a customer service resource for title agencies to communicate with customers around the clock via text or a website chat.

The intent is to help title company employees focus on more complex tasks, therefore allowing them to better serve clients.

Hoyt Mann

“Our mission is to enable title companies with technology that improves operational efficiencies while providing an exceptional customer service experience,” Alanna.ai President Hoyt Mann said in a statement. “We see demand within the industry only continuing to increase—you start to see the scalability of our platform considering where our monthly recurring revenue is a year into sales, it is a consistent upward trend.”

Mann founded the startup with fellow serial entrepreneur Randall Nelson in late 2019. The team, which previously founded PhaseWare and RamQuest, saw the land and title space as an industry primed for disruption, and began developing software that could simplify the closing process.

Randall Nelson

They say the technology makes it easier to access and consolidate real-time information, saving real estate agents, lenders, buyers, and sellers time.

“By making the communication experience between the title company and their customers faster, simpler and smoother, our platform is able to lead to lower costs for everyone involved,” Nelson said in a statement. “Alanna’s growth as well as the awarding of this grant will allow us to scale much quicker.”

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