Kita was founded by Carmel Limcaoco, Rhea Malhotra in 2025.

Who are Kita's investors?

Kita's investors include Y Combinator, Golden Gate Ventures, Kaya Founders, Altara Ventures, Apex Star Capital Nebula Fund, BEENEXT, BoxGroup, Capitalize VC and 5 more.

Where is Kita headquartered?

Kita is headquartered in San Francisco, US.

Kita

YC W26

San Francisco, US · Founded 2025 · 3 employees · 13 known investors

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Kita provides document processing and credit assessment software for lenders to evaluate borrowers in underserved markets. The platform handles paperwork and financial assessment behind lending, enabling banks, fintechs, and community lenders across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the US to reach creditworthy borrowers locked out by manual processes.

Also known as Kita Technologies, Inc.

AI & Machine Learning Fintech SaaS Computer Vision Lending Emerging MarketsUnited States of AmericaAmerica / Canada

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W26)

Kita was founded in 2025 by Carmel Limcaoco and Rhea Malhotra.

Carmel Limcaoco Co-Founder, CEOCarmel is the co-founder and CEO of Kita. She studied Symbolic Systems and Music at Stanford and was pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Science; she previously interned on audio and music products at Apple.

Rhea Malhotra Co-FounderShe holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Computer Science from Stanford and was accepted to pursue a PhD in Computer Vision and Robotics at Princeton. She has authored peer-reviewed papers and worked on vaccine development research at Pfizer.

Rhea SachdevFounder

Investors · 13

Y Combinator✓ confirmed by KitaSan Francisco · $500K

How we know: the company's own site · the Y Combinator directory · funding news · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Golden Gate Ventureslisted by Golden Gate VenturesSingapore · $1M – $5M

How we know: Golden Gate Ventures's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Kaya Founderslisted by Kaya FoundersMakati · $150K – $500K

How we know: Kaya Founders's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Altara VenturesreportedSingapore · $3M – $5M

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Apex Star Capital Nebula Fundreported

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

BEENEXTreportedSingapore

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

BoxGroupreportedNew York · $250K – $1M

How we know: funding news · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Capitalize VCreportedChicago · $100K – $200K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Carbon13reportedCambridge

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Octopus VenturesreportedLondon · $130K – $1.3M

How we know: funding news · Not right? Tell us

Phosphor Capitalreported

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Residualreported

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Stratus VenturesreportedColumbia

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

Undisclosed amountSeedFeb 2023 · 2 sources
Source ↗
Undisclosed amountpre-seed roundJun 2022 · 3 sources
Source ↗

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

The YC application· Winter 2026 batch

▶ Demo Day video — watch on YC ↗

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PoplPopl is an event lead capture and contact-sharing SaaS platform that uses AI to capture, contextualize, and manage connections made at conferences, trade shows, and networking events for enterprise teams. The platform serves large organizations and Fortune 500 companies seeking to streamline in-person business interactions and follow-up processes.

Companies working in the same space as Kita.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure

Kita Technologies, Inc.

Frequently asked questions

What does Kita do?: Kita provides document processing and credit assessment software for lenders to evaluate borrowers in underserved markets. The platform handles paperwork and financial assessment behind lending, enabling banks, fintechs, and community lenders across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the US to reach creditworthy borrowers locked out by manual processes.
Who founded Kita?: Kita was founded by Carmel Limcaoco, Rhea Malhotra in 2025.
Who are Kita's investors?: Kita's investors include Y Combinator, Golden Gate Ventures, Kaya Founders, Altara Ventures, Apex Star Capital Nebula Fund, BEENEXT, BoxGroup, Capitalize VC and 5 more.
Where is Kita headquartered?: Kita is headquartered in San Francisco, US.