Why We Invested in Worth
As fintech investors, our approach is to identify the problems that our industry is facing, and then wait until the latest technology advances to a point where it can solve them. To put it another way, we’ve seen the biggest opportunities develop when emerging technology is applied to a specific use case.
Worth is a standout example of a company that is using AI to solve a known issue in financial services. The company is helping financial institutions, credit unions, payment processors, and fintechs streamline SMB onboarding and underwriting – which wouldn’t be possible without the rapid advancements in AI and machine learning over the past few years.
Historically, onboarding and underwriting have been manual and static processes, requiring teams of employees to complete hours of research and verification. The process to vet SMBs is labor-intensive and slow, which hampers a financial institution’s ability to onboard customers quickly. This leads to lengthy approval times, inconsistent decision-making, and excess risk-loss ratios. On the SMB side, cumbersome onboarding forms result in application abandonment, which means FIs lose the opportunity to evaluate a business from the get-go.
Worth is building the largest proprietary data set on small businesses in the world. By analyzing large volumes of data from bank accounts, tax returns, QuickBooks, Stripe, and other sources – and continuously updating it – Worth can provide financial institutions, credit unions, payment processors, and fintechs with real-time data on more than 242 million small and mid-sized businesses. This dynamic solution can underpin a wide variety of financial decision-making around SMBs, from applications for credit-based products to loans and financing.
The idea for Worth came from veteran founders Sal Rehmetullah and Suneera Madhani, who previously led their first company, Stax Payments, to a $1B+ valuation and exit. Sal and Suneera experienced the challenges of financial underwriting firsthand which led them to found Worth. Over the past two years, the sibling duo has built an enterprise solution by collecting over 1,000 pieces of financial and organizational data from the SMB market, and then applying AI and machine learning to provide advanced risk modeling, comprehensive portfolio visibility, and continuous risk monitoring – all updated in real-time.
For early stage investors like us, the founding team is just as important as the business model itself, and the opportunity to invest in unicorn founders is rare. Sal and Suneera have a remarkable story of success in scaling Stax Payments from an idea to over $140M in revenue. As one of the few female CEOs to lead a unicorn, Suneera knows what it takes to blaze a new trail. The duo’s compelling vision for Worth and commitment to a high standard of excellence gave us full confidence in our investment.
Sal and Suneera are bringing their previous leadership experience to bear as they grow Worth’s business, and their expertise is already paying dividends. The company is already working with some of the most noteworthy companies in the industry. We are honored to partner with Sal, Suneera, and the entire team at Worth as they build the future of AI-driven SMB onboarding and underwriting.
