small-business-finance
(3)
Flow48
Flow48 is a Dubai-based fintech that gives small and medium businesses in emerging markets fast access to working capital by turning their future revenue and unpaid invoices into upfront cash. Founded in 2022 by serial entrepreneur Idriss Al Rifai, the company uses a proprietary, data-driven underwriting engine to approve non-dilutive, collateral-free financing of up to $20 million, typically disbursing funds within 24 to 48 hours. Operating across the UAE and South Africa with expansion into Saudi Arabia, Flow48 raised a $69 million Series A in February 2025 to close the SME funding gap that traditional banks leave open.
Jessica Chen Riolfi
Jessica Chen Riolfi is the co-founder and CEO of Uprise, a fintech building embedded tax and financial advisory for small business owners. She spent more than a decade shipping products at Wise, Earnin and Robinhood, ran TransferWise's Asia business across 15 countries, and started out in J.P. Morgan investment banking before pairing human advisors with AI to make real financial advice affordable for entrepreneurs.
Jerry Connelly
Jerry Connelly is the Chief Executive Officer of KeepingCount, a remote-first outsourced accounting and advisory firm that gives growing small businesses and nonprofits the bookkeeping, reporting, and fractional-CFO horsepower they usually cannot afford to hire in-house. Built around the promise of 'better numbers for growing businesses,' KeepingCount pairs platform technologies like Sage Intacct and QuickBooks Online with hands-on accounting teams serving construction, consumer products, professional services, real estate, life sciences, and vacation-rental clients. Originally headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the company now runs as a distributed organization, and Connelly leads it with a stated emphasis on values - conscientious, disciplined, gracious, integrity, and serving all clients.