An angel investor was so intrigued by this startup, he joined as a co-founder

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This week we’re a startup out to assist individuals navigate long-term care, a flurry of exercise in Africa, one other fintech firm shutdown, and extra.

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The massive story

Lily Vittayarukskul, Co-founder and CEO — **Picture Credit:**Waterlily

Lengthy-term care shouldn’t be one thing most individuals take into consideration till they’re older, or till they’re compelled to. And by then, it’s typically too late. This matter is private to me, as I noticed each my oldest brother and my mom undergo from sicknesses and require long-term care lately. Not solely is it troublesome to search out high quality care, however it’s also extraordinarily costly — even in case you have been lucky sufficient to buy some kind of insurance coverage coverage. So after I was lately pitched a narrative on a startup utilizing AI to assist individuals navigate long-term care planning, I used to be intrigued.

Lily Vittayarukskul started Waterlily in late 2021 after her household was “worn 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 constructing a care plan and determining the precise approach to pay for it.”

Fascinating. I’m not the one one who thinks this manner. Vittayarukskul initially began Waterlily as a solo founder till Evan Ehrenberg, a small angel investor, got here alongside. Ehrenberg — who had beforehand based and sold Clara Well being — helped with early analysis and was struck by the trade’s response. Curious, he examined the platform and was shocked by his long-term care predictions — a lot in order that he modified his weight loss program, employed a private coach, and up to date his monetary plans. That have pulled him in deeper. By 2022, Ehrenberg — who turned MIT’s youngest neuroscience PhD — had joined Waterlily as a co-founder.

{Dollars} and cents

Moove Founders — **Picture Credit:**Moove

Uber-backed Moove, an Africa-born mobility fintech that gives automobile 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 Providers’ tackle cloud internet hosting: Clients can use a single service, nevertheless it’s extra environment friendly in case you 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 another €42 million (round $44 million at present alternate 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 recently closed $9.9 million in seed funding led by QED Traders. Like many cross-border fee platforms utilizing stablecoins, Cedar Cash acts as a bridge. It launched in early 2024, beginning operations in Nigeria.

Guinea-based fintech Cauridor lately raised $3.5 million in seed funding to proceed constructing its fee rails that allow retailers, banks, telecom operators, and cash switch corporations transfer funds out and in of Africa.

What else we’re writing

A laptop keyboard and Wise on App Store displayed on a phone screen. — **Picture Credit:**Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Pictures

The Client Monetary Safety Bureau (CFPB) has hit U.Okay.-based remittance firm Sensible with an roughly $2 million fine for what it described as “a sequence of unlawful actions.”

Cushion, a fintech startup that described itself because the “Plaid for purchase now, pay later (BNPL),” has shut down. Founder and CEO Paul Kesserwani stated that “regardless of bringing a number of new fintech merchandise to market,” Cushion “didn’t attain the dimensions wanted to maintain the enterprise.”

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 might be thought of as a mature firm. However the medical health insurance firm that desires to grow to be a digital companion in your well being is still growing like a startup.

Serial entrepreneur and former recording artist Victor D. Lombard, often known as DIVINE, introduced the launch of a new fintech company for musicians in partnership with RAKIM, one in all 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 essentially the most compelling use circumstances unfold. Tage Kene-Okafor does a deep dive.