Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2026) - OCAL Financial Inc. (TSXV: OCAL) ("OCAL" or the "Company") is pleased to provide details on voice AI, the technology that the Company uses to reach and qualify people looking to finance a vehicle. Voice AI allows the Company to grow its customer volume without growing its cost base at the same pace.

In auto finance, the speed of the first response is money. A large share of leads go cold simply because no one follows up quickly enough, and every lost lead is marketing spend that produced nothing. The problem is structural: a lead that is not reached in the first minutes is far less likely to convert, and most dealerships do not have enough people to call every lead quickly, especially in the evenings and on weekends when many customers actually apply. OCAL treated that as a technology problem rather than a staffing one.

Missing follow-ups has actual costs. A dealership pays to generate a lead, then loses it because the one finance person on shift was busy when the lead came in. The money spent to attract that customer is gone, and a competitor who called back first wins the sale. Across thousands of leads a year, slow follow-up becomes one of the largest hidden leaks in the business, and this is the leak OCAL's system is built to close.

The approach is not to remove people but to put them where they add the most value. Routine qualification and scheduling run through the system, while trained staff spend their time on conversations that need judgment, empathy or a careful explanation. That division of labour is meant to give customers a better experience and give the Company more output from the same team.

The system handles first calls and follow-ups on its own. It uses natural-language processing to read tone, intent and context, and it adjusts each conversation to the caller's credit situation and what they are trying to finance. It pre-qualifies the caller and moves qualified people straight into OCAL's approval and sourcing process. When call volume rises, it holds many conversations at the same time, so a busy day does not mean missed calls. Anything complicated or sensitive is handed to a member of the team, and every call is scripted, disclosed and logged.

OCAL put real-time voice agents into production in 2025, and they are part of the day-to-day operations today. In the Company's own use, the system is meant to raise contact rates, cut the leads lost to slow follow-up, and lower the cost of engaging each lead compared with manual calling. For a business whose economics depend on turning marketing spend into funded deals, reaching more of those leads at a lower cost per conversation goes straight to the bottom line.

For a company planning to grow across provinces, the important feature is that this capacity does not have to be rebuilt or restaffed in each new market. The same system that answers a lead in British Columbia can answer one in Ontario the day that market opens, at the same cost per conversation. That is a large part of what lets OCAL add customers faster than it adds headcount, which is central to how the business is designed to scale.

The voice system also produces a consistent, fully documented interaction every time. In a business built on financing, where disclosures and records matter, having every conversation scripted, disclosed and logged is not only efficient, it supports the compliance and auditability standards to which the Company holds itself.

The voice system does not work in isolation. It connects directly to application intake, credit routing and vehicle sourcing, so a good conversation flows into the next step rather than sitting in a queue. That is part of OCAL's larger aim of running one coordinated process from first contact to delivery.

"We want the first call and the follow-up to be fast and consistent, with a person stepping in exactly where judgment is needed," said Mehdi Moghareh, Chief Executive Officer of OCAL. "It lets us talk to every lead promptly without adding a new agent every time volume climbs."

"Because every call is scripted, disclosed and logged, we get consistency and a clean, auditable record at the same time," added Mr. Moghareh. "That matters when you operate in a regulated, finance-driven business."

Engagement of Market Maker

The Company also announces that it has retained Integral Wealth Securities Limited ("Integral") to provide market-making in accordance with TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") policies, in order to maintain an orderly market. OCAL has agreed to pay Integral a cash fee of $6,000 per month, plus applicable taxes and any approved and reasonable costs and expenses Integral incurs in connection with the services provided, for an initial minimum term of three months, after which the agreement may be terminated by the Company at any time upon 30 days' written notice.

Integral will not receive shares or options as compensation and Integral and the Company, to the Company's knowledge, are unrelated and unaffiliated entities, however Integral and its clients may acquire an interest in the securities of the Company. The engagement of Integral is subject to the approval by the Exchange.

About OCAL

OCAL Financial Inc. is an asset-light, AI-native virtual automotive dealership and vehicle-finance platform. Operating remotely and licensed in British Columbia and Alberta, OCAL moves customers from application to approval, vehicle matching, digital contracting and delivery in a single workflow. Rather than carrying owned inventory, OCAL sources each vehicle only after a customer is approved, drawing on the OPENLANE auction network and select partners. OCAL earns revenue from vehicle sales and related finance and protection products, and does not hold consumer loans or assume credit-default risk. Its technology stack, which includes workflow orchestration, a lender-routing credit-intelligence system, voice AI, and a centralized business-intelligence system, is built specifically for automotive transactions.

To learn more about OCAL, visit www.ocalfinancial.ca.

Cautionary Notes

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in the United States. The Company's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information generally refers to information about an issuer's business, capital, or operations that is prospective in nature, and includes future-oriented financial information about the issuer's prospective financial performance or financial position. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions and includes information regarding: the Company's business plans, technology development, plans to expand into various provinces, ability of voice AI to grow the customer base of OCAL, Integral providing market making services to OCAL, and, where applicable, proposed acquisitions and related appointments. To develop the forward-looking information in this news release, the Company made certain material assumptions, including but not limited to: prevailing market conditions; approval by the Exchange of the engagement of Integral; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and the ability of the Company to execute and achieve its business objectives. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary from the forward-looking information in this news release due to certain material risk factors. These risk factors include, but are not limited to: adverse market conditions; changes in general economic, business and political conditions; changes in applicable laws and regulations; compliance with extensive government regulation; reliance on key and qualified personnel; risks associated with the technology industry in general; and the risk factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the filing statement of the Company available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. The foregoing list of material risk factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information in this news release, unless it is required to do so under Canadian securities legislation.

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