Live Oak Bank and Vantaca are among the Wilmington area’s leading technology-driven businesses, and each has had a strong year. 

After reaching unicorn status when it was valued at $1.25 billion last year, Vantaca, a community association management software company, spent most of 2026 hiring, rolling out its new artificial intelligence agent suite and expanding its business. Live Oak Bank, a community anchor that has helped incubate the region’s burgeoning fintech ecosystem, remained the nation's largest SBA 7(a) lender by dollar volume for the second consecutive year. 

Both companies are poised for continued growth, and leaders from both firms say adapting strategically to artificial intelligence will be key to their future.

“It’s become by far the fastest-growing and most important product set and product that we support as a company,” said Vantaca CEO Ben Currin at the Greater Wilmington Business Journal’s Spark ILM event in October. 

“It’s really changed the way we think about building products and where constraints are,” he added. 

Vantaca unveiled its agentic artificial intelligence suite, HOAi Fleet, in June. The company acquired HOAi, an AI technology provider, in 2024, and HOAi Fleet expands on that technology. The suite includes AI agents designed to handle back-office tasks typical of community association management, including financial production and association onboarding. 

Although Vantaca operates at the forefront of AI integration as a self-described AI-first business, Currin underscored that the company focuses on improving the value it delivers to clients rather than simply defending against potential AI-driven disruption.

“I like playing offense way more than defense,” Currin said. “I think that there are some companies and some industries that are worried about how we build a moat so that AI doesn’t disrupt us, or someone doesn’t come in and make this irrelevant…”

“I think it’s much more interesting and viable for companies to try to do things better than anyone else could do it, and be more valuable to your customers, and be more valuable than competitors.”

Similarly, BJ Losch, president of Live Oak Bank, emphasized that the bank is focused on using AI to create value for customers while maintaining meaningful roles for employees. 

“AI is an accelerant of our strategy, not the strategy itself,” Losch said. “I think, particularly for businesses, there’s a lot of excitement on one side and angst on the other side about what that might do to jobs and growth and people’s value, if you will, at work.”

He added, “We’re very intentional about saying, ‘Hey, our business is not predicated on AI transforming our company,’ but with that said, we think that there’s plenty of opportunity to do things with AI that are going to benefit all of us.”

While Losch outlined eventual plans for Live Oak to become an “AI-native” bank during the company’s first quarter earnings call this spring, he emphasized that the company is adopting a “bottom-up” approach to AI in the meantime, encouraging employees to build AI tools to improve workflows, reduce tedious tasks and serve more customers. 

“We’re fortunate as a growing company that we can continue to grow and grow and use AI and help people be productive,” Losch said, “and still have meaningful roles for people going forward."