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This week we’re taking a look at a startup out to assist individuals navigate long-term care utilizing AI, a flurry of exercise in Africa, one other fintech firm shutdown, and extra.
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The large story
Lengthy-term care isn’t one thing most individuals take into consideration till they’re older, or till they’re pressured to. And by then, it’s typically too late. This subject is private to me, as I noticed each my oldest brother and my mom undergo from diseases and require long-term care lately. Not solely is it troublesome to seek out high quality care, however additionally it is extraordinarily costly — even if you happen to had been lucky sufficient to buy some form of insurance coverage coverage. So after I was just lately pitched a narrative on a startup utilizing AI to assist individuals navigate long-term care planning, I used to be intrigued.
Lily Vittayarukskul began Waterlily in late 2021 after her household was “wiped out” financially by serving to look after her aunt who had been recognized with terminal colon most cancers. The corporate makes use of synthetic intelligence to foretell a household’s future long-term care wants and prices after which guides them “in building a care plan and figuring out the right way to pay for it.”
Fascinating. I’m not the one one who thinks this fashion. Vittayarukskul initially began Waterlily as a solo founder till Evan Ehrenberg, a small angel investor, got here alongside. Ehrenberg — who had beforehand based and offered Clara Health — helped with early analysis and was struck by the business’s response. Curious, he examined the platform and was shocked by his long-term care predictions — a lot in order that he modified his eating regimen, employed a private coach, and up to date his monetary plans. That have pulled him in deeper. By 2022, Ehrenberg — who grew to become MIT’s youngest neuroscience PhD — had joined Waterlily as a co-founder.
{Dollars} and cents
Uber-backed Moove, an Africa-born mobility fintech that gives car financing to ride-hailing and supply app drivers throughout six continents, has acquired Kovi, a Brazilian city mobility supplier. Moove co-founder and co-CEO Ladi Delano instructed TechCrunch that the deal bumps the mobility fintech’s annual income to $275 million. Final March, Moove reported a $115 million ARR.
Formance believes there’s worth in providing a modular platform that’s just like Amazon Net Companies’ tackle cloud internet hosting: Prospects can use a single service, but it surely’s extra environment friendly if you happen to home all of your cloud infrastructure below the identical roof. And it’s simply raised $21 million in a spherical co-led by PayPal Ventures and Portage.
French embedded banking startup Swan has raised one other €42 million (round $44 million at present change charges). The corporate considers this spherical to be the second a part of the Collection B that was initially introduced in September 2023.
Cedar Cash just lately closed $9.9 million in seed funding led by QED Buyers. Like many cross-border cost platforms utilizing stablecoins, Cedar Cash acts as a bridge. It launched in early 2024, beginning operations in Nigeria.
Guinea-based fintech Cauridor just lately raised $3.5 million in seed funding to proceed constructing its cost rails that permit retailers, banks, telecom operators, and cash switch corporations transfer funds out and in of Africa.
What else we’re writing
The Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau (CFPB) has hit U.Okay.-based remittance firm Smart with an roughly $2 million high quality for what it described as “a series of illegal actions.”
Cushion, a fintech startup that described itself because the “Plaid for buy now, pay later (BNPL),” has shut down. Founder and CEO Paul Kesserwani stated that “despite bringing multiple new fintech products to market,” Cushion “didn’t reach the scale needed to sustain the business.”
Elon Musk-owned social community X introduced a partnership with Visa to deal with person-to-person funds for its upcoming X Cash product.
With its 700,000 clients, Alan may very well be thought of as a mature firm. However the medical insurance firm that wishes to turn out to be a digital companion on your well being is nonetheless rising like a startup.
Serial entrepreneur and former recording artist Victor D. Lombard, also called DIVINE, introduced the launch of a brand new fintech firm for musicians in partnership with RAKIM, considered one of hip-hop’s most influential emcees.
The rise of stablecoins — now a $205 billion market — is pushed by real-world utility, not hypothesis, significantly in rising markets the place probably the most compelling use circumstances unfold. Tage Kene-Okafor does a deep dive.
Excessive-interest headlines
Nu Mexico hits 10 million buyer milestone
Actual property fraud prevention startup Closinglock secures $34M
Trump stands to realize $250 million after media firm expands into monetary providers
Itaú Unibanco bets huge on AI with NeoSpace funding
Advisor AI startup Soar completes $20M Collection A funding
Thanks for studying! Till subsequent week … observe me on X @bayareawriter for breaking fintech information, posts about espresso, and extra.
