Small businesses have been sprouting up in the U.S. since the pandemic, and there are plenty of tech tools designed to help those companies manage payroll or arrange retirement benefits, but more doesn't mean businesses know how to use them to make smarter decisions.

Uprise wants to turn that upside down. The new startup seeks to be some kind of financial advisor for these small businesses. It weaves itself into other financial service products that SMBs are already using, such as HR tech company Rippling and SMB tax startup Carry, and recommends what companies should do. For instance, Uprise might recommend the type of retirement benefit a company should offer based on its size and location.

Recommendations come from an AI algorithm that takes in information about the specific company as well as data points collected from the financial service institutes the person is accessing Uprise from. Co-founder and head of engineering Nanthakumar Muthusamy (above left with co-founders Jennifer Chen Riolfi [center] and Chris Goodmacher [right]) told TechCrunch that all of the platform's recommendations get vetted through a human financial advisor.

We believe, Muthusamy said, "humans should be in the loop before you talk to a customer". They also like talking to a human more than a machine.

Where Uprise is now focusing on smaller businesses, its original concept was financial advice to consumers. Jessica Chen Riolfi, Uprise co-founder, CEO, and former vice president for product at Robin Hood said the idea behind it came after working in many roles at fintech companies like Wise and Robinhood where she realized consumers had the same problem making smart decisions.

She quickly connected with Chris Goodmacher, an OnDeck fellow who had also looked at this very same dilemma while working at fintech companies like JustWorks, and got started. Muthusamy joined the group shortly after.

The first iteration of Uprise was launched in private beta in 2022 as a direct-to-consumer strategy made directly to an individual decision maker. While the original product continues to exist, the company decided to pivot and focus on small businesses after realizing that its most engaged users were individuals-entrepreneurs and freelancers, for example-trying to get advice for themselves and their small business.

Traditional finance, it doesn't have a great solution for them, Chen Riolfi said of these people. If you walk into any traditional bank, it's like for your business needs go here and for your personal needs go there, and the two sides don't talk to each other. But that doesn't reflect the reality of a small business owner. My business finances are my finances.

While most the company's clients are small businesses, it swiftly started receiving incoming requests from fintech companies wishing to have their tech embedded on their platforms. Uprise has been operating in beta since 2023 with five customers and is now fully launching, with even more partnerships in the works.

The San Francisco-based company just raised a seed round of $3.3 million led by Blank Ventures, with participation from Graham & Walker, Hustle Fund, and Dash Fund, among other VCs. It also raised money from dozens of angel investors from the fintech world, including Dan Macklin, co-founder of SoFi, and Eddie Kim, co-founder of Gusto.

All of the investors who came in know the space really deeply, Chen Riolfi said. The thread through this entire journey is we didn't have to convince them there was a need, she added.
The company plans to use the money to help completely launch the product and to land more partnerships.

"Our vision for what embedded financial advisory means is if you are a small business owner and you have a folder of financial apps, we want to be integrated into all of those apps, Chen Riolfi said. "We know the context and know what you should be doing there."