Get To Know The CEO: After Building One FinTech Unicorn, Sal Rehmetullah Aims Even Higher With Worth AI

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Most entrepreneurs dream about reaching “unicorn status.” For Sal Rehmetullah, one side of the sibling-duo behind Stax Payments, hitting that coveted $1 billion valuation milestone made him even more ready to scale another venture.

After the company secured its Series D funding and its $1 billion valuation, Rehmetullah left Stax and spent time traveling, working on his golf game, and honing his pickleball skills. But the accomplished entrepreneur felt a nagging "sense of loss" when he was out of the CEO and founder role.

"I was in ‘soul searching’ mode," Rehmetullah told Hypepotamus. In that reflective period, he kept circling back to particular questions: Were there pain points from building Stax that he could have addressed differently? What other problems were there to solve?

"Stax was a great $1 billion story," Rehmetullah told Hypepotamus. "Why wasn't it $10 billion?"

That question would become the driving force behind his next venture, Worth AI, launched again alongside his sister and co-CEO Suneera Madhani.

Building Up Worth AI

Worth AI is an AI-powered credit-underwriting platform built around solving the very growth challenges the team had experienced while building Stax. As an onboarding and underwriting workflow automation tool, the company sees its core audience as FinTechs, financial institutions, credit unions, independent software vendors, payment processors, and lenders who work with SMBs (small to medium sized businesses). Worth helps businesses with faster approvals, enhanced compliance, and smarter risk management…all while giving people the information and access they need, and expect, instantaneously.

The platform's Worth Pre-Fill feature improves the SMB onboarding experience by reducing manual data entry, while automating crucial KYB/KYC (know your business/know your customer) and identity verification processes. Customers can just fill in their name, address, and TaxID/EIN number, and Worth AI will pull the other important data needed to complete an application, which can help reduce abandonment rates.

The ultimate goal? Creating a unified business credit score that consolidates all data into a single, powerful metric. A Worth Score looks at over 1,100 data points in its decision-making process, and is designed to help businesses make more unbiased evaluations about their potential customers.

“We really want to make it easy for small businesses to access capital,” Rehmetullah told Hypepotamus.

"Winning With Friends"

Building another company alongside his sibling is something that Rehmetullah says is a true asset for the team, calling Madhani his “ultimate trust partner.” Even outside of work, Rehmetullah, a new dad himself, said he enjoys spending time with Madhani and her family.

For Rehmetullah, the co-CEO structure allows him to focus on what he does best on the sales side while leveraging complementary strengths within the leadership team. This time around, the sibling team has brought on long-time friend and tech entrepreneur Devon Wijesinghe as President.

Wijesinghe is no stranger to the Hypepotamus audience or the Southeast tech ecosystem, having served as the CEO of Insightpool and c-founder of e-VERIFILE.

"What we really enjoy is working together to solve big problems," Rehmetullah said. "Winning is fun, but winning with friends is just better."

Lessons From The CEO

After starting his career at Morgan Stanley and Deloitte, Rehmetullah joined InsurTech company Anaplan during its Series C stage. In 2014, he and his sister founded Fattmerchant (later rebranded as Stax) in Orlando. The company eventually expanded to Atlanta following an investment from Fulcrum Equity Partners, ultimately growing into the unicorn success story that would shape his next chapter.

Rehmetullah knows there are things that are simply easier this time around. Fundraising, for example, given the team’s track record with Stax. Earlier this year, Worth AI secured a $25 million round from lead investor Atlanta-based TTV Capital. Others in the round include Florida Funders, DeepWork Capital, Ingeborg Investments, and HorizenNet Capital.

“You're smarter,” he told Hypepotamus when asked about what is different the second time building a FinTech startup from the ground up. “You know what's around the corner, but it still takes the same amount of time.”

Now, instead of constantly pitching investors, his days are filled with customer phone calls, prospect phone calls, partnership phone calls, and executive meetings. That shift allows him to focus on building rather than fundraising.

Worth AI’s team is currently around 60 people, with over a dozen active job postings on their site. While the Florida-based team continues to grow, Rehmetullah's focus remains on the bigger picture around building a mission-driven FinTech.

"I would love to build a multibillion-dollar company this time," Rehmetullah said. "But the legacy portion this time around is what motivates us.”