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Business Insider
01-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Read the exclusive pitch deck AI voice agent startup Cekura used to raise $2.4 million out of Y Combinator
AI voice agent startup Cekura has raised $2.4 million in seed funding, led by Y Combinator. Cekura fine-tunes AI agents in highly regulated spaces like health and finance. It sees a vast opportunity as call centers increasingly bend to AI. Flex Capital, Hike Ventures, Pioneer Fund, and Decacorn participated in the round, as did angel investors Kulveer Taggar, Chris Smoak, Ooshma Garg, Richard Aberman, and JJ Fliegelman. Cekura — a riff on the word secure, rebranded from Vocera in March — was founded by a trio of IIT Bombay grads in their twenties: Sidhant Kabra, Tarush Agarwal, and Shashij Gupta. The company has seven employees and expects to onboard three others next month. Kabra told Business Insider the longtime friends were working on AI agents in the healthcare space and struggling with quality assurance (QA) amid manual fixes that could take hours. Cekura uses AI to simulate conversations and generate thousands of edge-case scenarios to put AI agents through their paces before going live. "The customers will interrupt you, the customers will be toxic, the customers will try to jailbreak you, the customers will operate out of bias," Kabra said. "You need to really stress test your agents before you go live." After that, Cekura works to detect issues and can add new features so agents can assume more responsibilities. As call centers shift to AI, Cekura sees vast opportunity. The company monetizes via a subscription model for startup clients, beginning at $1,000 per month. It also has custom enterprise offerings. While roughly 90% of its business is focused on voice agents, it also builds chat agents, Kabra said. Competitors include fellow Y Combinator grads like Coval and Hamming. (Most recently, the famed accelerator's spring 2025 batch featured 70 startups focused on agentic AI — each of which received a $500,000 investment.) Cekura has roughly 70 customers across industries — including in highly regulated spaces like healthcare and financial services, where "the threshold of reliability is pretty high," Kabra said. Some of its clients include AI mortgage servicing startup Kastle and Sandra — an AI receptionist for car dealerships. Photos of Cekura's three cofounders: Tarush Agarwal, Shahij Gupta, and Sidhant Kabra. A slide about Cekura's emphasis on reliability. A chart showing how Cekura grew monthly recurring revenue over 10 weeks. A chart showing Cekura's sales across channels, as well as pie graphs illustrating customer type and segmentation. A chart showing the workflow from Cekura's simulation to evaluation agents. Cekura sees the call center business as a $12.5 billion market opportunity.
Malaysian Reserve
20-06-2025
- Business
- Malaysian Reserve
YieldClub Launches Simple Crypto Savings App Offering Up To 12% APY, Raises $2.5M Pre-Seed
Ex-Rally & Kabam Founders Tackle Inflation and Low Rates, Bringing High-Yield DeFi Savings to Everyone Through a Secure, Non-Custodial Platform WASHINGTON, June 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — YieldClub today unveiled its mobile app designed to make high-yield crypto savings simple and accessible, announcing an upcoming public launch alongside a $2.5 million pre-seed funding round. Aiming to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the high-return potential of decentralized finance (DeFi), YieldClub provides an intuitive platform where users can easily earn up to 12% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on stablecoins, significantly outpacing traditional savings accounts. The funding round was backed by prominent fintech and crypto investors including Pharsalus, Flex Capital, The House Fund, and Superlayer, with strategic angel investments from proven tech leaders like Kevin Chou (Founder, Kabam), Sam Shank (Founder, HotelTonight), Charlie Songhurst (Former Head of Strategy, Microsoft; Investor), and early Solana contributors. YieldClub was founded by CEO Mahesh Vellanki and CTO Michael Li, veterans of successful consumer tech companies Rally (creator economy) and Kabam (mobile gaming unicorn, ~$1B exit). Their mission is to demystify DeFi and package its benefits into a consumer-friendly savings product. YieldClub achieves this through a sleek app interface, seamless social login onboarding, and regionally optimized methods for converting cash to stablecoins. Crucially, YieldClub operates on a non-custodial model, meaning users always retain full control over their funds. 'DeFi offers yields far outpacing traditional savings, but accessing them has been unnecessarily complex – often challenging even for crypto insiders,' said Mahesh Vellanki, CEO of YieldClub. 'YieldClub changes that. We've distilled sophisticated DeFi yield strategies, the kind often used by 'smart money,' into an incredibly simple and secure mobile app. Anyone can now tap into significant yield potential in just a few clicks. We essentially built the straightforward, high-performance savings tool we wished existed for everyone, including ourselves.' YieldClub enters the market at a time when consumers are actively seeking alternatives to low-interest savings options. The platform leverages mature, audited DeFi protocols like Morpho (a top lending protocol) to generate yield on stablecoins (digital assets pegged to currencies like the US Dollar). This offers users exposure to potentially higher returns without the volatility often associated with other cryptocurrencies. The approach is particularly relevant in international markets like Brazil, where stablecoin adoption is growing rapidly. 'YieldClub has cracked the code on making DeFi truly consumer-friendly,' said Auren Hoffman, General Partner of Flex Capital. 'Mahesh, Michael, and the team have a rare combination of deep crypto understanding and a proven ability to build engaging products that scale to millions. They are perfectly positioned to bring the benefits of DeFi yield to the mainstream.' The $2.5 million pre-seed funding will fuel the app's public launch, expand its range of yield-generating options, enhance partnerships for easy cash-to-crypto conversion, and grow the engineering and product teams. Future plans include launching a debit card allowing users to spend their stablecoin balances while still earning yield, and exploring tokenized stock offerings for international users – all while maintaining the non-custodial promise. 'Think Robinhood, but for DeFi products,' added Vellanki. 'We're applying that same focus on user experience and accessibility to unlock a powerful financial tool previously reserved for crypto experts. We're putting institutional-grade yield generation into everyone's pocket.' YieldClub is available now for preorder on the Apple App Store, with its full public launch set for Monday, June 23, 2025, on both Apple and Android devices. About YieldClub YieldClub is simplifying decentralized finance (DeFi) for everyone. Founded in 2025 by consumer tech veterans from Rally and Kabam, YieldClub offers an intuitive mobile app that allows users to easily and securely earn high yields on crypto savings, without needing prior expertise or giving up control of their funds. Their mission is to make the powerful benefits of DeFi accessible to a global audience. Contact CEOJustin MauldinSalient PRachievemore@ Photo –
Business Insider
20-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
YieldClub Launches Simple Crypto Savings App Offering Up To 12% APY, Raises $2.5M Pre-Seed
Washington, D.C., June 20th, 2025, FinanceWire Ex-Rally & Kabam Founders Tackle Inflation and Low Rates, Bringing High-Yield DeFi Savings to Everyone Through a Secure, Non-Custodial Platform YieldClub today unveiled its mobile app designed to make high-yield crypto savings simple and accessible, announcing an upcoming public launch alongside a $2.5 million pre-seed funding round. Aiming to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the high-return potential of decentralized finance (DeFi), YieldClub provides an intuitive platform where users can easily earn up to 12% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on stablecoins, significantly outpacing traditional savings accounts. The funding round was backed by prominent fintech and crypto investors including Pharsalus, Flex Capital, The House Fund, and Superlayer, with strategic angel investments from proven tech leaders like Kevin Chou (Founder, Kabam), Sam Shank (Founder, HotelTonight), Charlie Songhurst (Former Head of Strategy, Microsoft; Investor), and early Solana contributors. YieldClub was founded by CEO Mahesh Vellanki and CTO Michael Li, veterans of successful consumer tech companies Rally (creator economy) and Kabam (mobile gaming unicorn, ~$1B exit). Their mission is to demystify DeFi and package its benefits into a consumer-friendly savings product. YieldClub achieves this through a sleek app interface, seamless social login onboarding, and regionally optimized methods for converting cash to stablecoins. Crucially, YieldClub operates on a non-custodial model, meaning users always retain full control over their funds. 'DeFi offers yields far outpacing traditional savings, but accessing them has been unnecessarily complex – often challenging even for crypto insiders," said Mahesh Vellanki, CEO of YieldClub. "YieldClub changes that. We've distilled sophisticated DeFi yield strategies, the kind often used by 'smart money,' into an incredibly simple and secure mobile app. Anyone can now tap into significant yield potential in just a few clicks. We essentially built the straightforward, high-performance savings tool we wished existed for everyone, including ourselves.' YieldClub enters the market at a time when consumers are actively seeking alternatives to low-interest savings options. The platform leverages mature, audited DeFi protocols like Morpho (a top lending protocol) to generate yield on stablecoins (digital assets pegged to currencies like the US Dollar). This offers users exposure to potentially higher returns without the volatility often associated with other cryptocurrencies. The approach is particularly relevant in international markets like Brazil, where stablecoin adoption is growing rapidly. "YieldClub has cracked the code on making DeFi truly consumer-friendly," said Auren Hoffman, General Partner of Flex Capital. "Mahesh, Michael, and the team have a rare combination of deep crypto understanding and a proven ability to build engaging products that scale to millions. They are perfectly positioned to bring the benefits of DeFi yield to the mainstream." The $2.5 million pre-seed funding will fuel the app's public launch, expand its range of yield-generating options, enhance partnerships for easy cash-to-crypto conversion, and grow the engineering and product teams. Future plans include launching a debit card allowing users to spend their stablecoin balances while still earning yield, and exploring tokenized stock offerings for international users – all while maintaining the non-custodial promise. "Think Robinhood, but for DeFi products," added Vellanki. "We're applying that same focus on user experience and accessibility to unlock a powerful financial tool previously reserved for crypto experts. We're putting institutional-grade yield generation into everyone's pocket." YieldClub is available now for preorder on the Apple App Store, with its full public launch set for Monday, June 23, 2025, on both Apple and Android devices. YieldClub is simplifying decentralized finance (DeFi) for everyone. Founded in 2025 by consumer tech veterans from Rally and Kabam, YieldClub offers an intuitive mobile app that allows users to easily and securely earn high yields on crypto savings, without needing prior expertise or giving up control of their funds. Their mission is to make the powerful benefits of DeFi accessible to a global audience. CEO Salient PR
