Kita, an AI credit assessment startup in Y Combinator’s Winter 2026 batch, announced in August that it raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by BoxGroup.
The round included Y Combinator, Golden Gate Ventures, U.S. News Digital Ventures, BEENEXT, Kaya Founders, Genting Ventures and Apex Star Capital, according to the company.
Kita builds software for lenders that evaluate borrowers using financial documents such as bank statements, payslips and invoices. Y Combinator describes the company as automating parts of application completion, document verification and underwriting by turning unstructured borrower documents into data that credit teams can use.
The company was founded in 2025 by Carmel Limcaoco and Rhea Malhotra. Limcaoco, Kita’s CEO, is from Manila, while Malhotra is its CTO. Y Combinator says both were completing master’s degrees in computer science at Stanford when they chose to build Kita full time.
Kita says its platform is live with lenders in the Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States. The company said it plans to use the funding to expand its engineering team, develop its underwriting and fraud capabilities, and support growth across multiple markets.