Fintech startup Worth has raised $20 million in a seed funding round, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. This significant investment is a testament to the founders' reputation and the growing demand for efficient underwriting solutions in the financial industry.

Worth's founders, Sal Rehmetullah and Suneera Madhani, are siblings who previously founded Stax Payments, a fintech company that exited with a valuation of over $1.1 billion. Their experience in the fintech space has equipped them with valuable insights to tackle the challenges of underwriting for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

The Orlando, Florida-based startup aims to provide "frictionless" onboarding and underwriting for SMBs applying for credit-based products, loans, or financing. Currently, the process is often cumbersome, requiring extensive paperwork, multiple document uploads, and lengthy wait times. Worth's technology seeks to eliminate these pain points, enabling faster approvals and reducing application abandonment.

Worth's solution pre-fills applications with necessary data and automates checks, including Know Your Business (KYB), Know Your Customer (KYC), ownership identity verification, fraud verification, bank account verification, and financial statement analysis in real-time. This enables financial institutions to quickly and easily onboard SMBs with just three fields: their name, address, and tax ID.

The startup has built a proprietary dataset of over 242 million global SMBs by analyzing large volumes of data from bank accounts, tax returns, QuickBooks, Stripe, and other sources. This dataset provides financial institutions with real-time data, allowing them to make informed decisions.

Worth has demonstrated significant growth, with an annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the "seven figures" and growth exceeding "triple digits." The company has secured over 25 clients, including Aurora Payments, REPAY Holdings, Fairwinds, and PatientFi, among others.

The startup generates revenue through platform fees for access to pre-filling capabilities, instant verification services, and AI-based features, as well as per-entity verification usage fees. Worth plans to launch a "Worth Score," or business credit score, directly to SMBs in early 2026 to help them better understand their financial health.

TTV Capital led the equity raise, with participation from Ingeborg, Florida Funders, Deep Work Capital, and Florida Opportunity Fund. Worth also secured $5 million in debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank. The company plans to utilize the new capital to scale its organization, particularly across sales and marketing.

TTV Capital's Neil Kapur believes that Worth is increasing operational efficiency for customers in an automated way, providing immediate and quantifiably measurable ROI. Kapur also highlighted the founding team's unique qualifications to solve the challenges of onboarding and underwriting for financial institutions.

As the fintech landscape continues to evolve, Worth's innovative approach to underwriting is poised to make a significant impact. With its seed funding in place, the startup is well-positioned to drive growth and transform the way financial institutions interact with SMBs.