Plentina is the buy now pay later fintech startup building a new digital-first experience for financial services leveraging artificial intelligence. Earl is an aerospace engineer by training, and Kevin was a computer vision researcher at NASA Ames. The two met as graduate students at Stanford, where they bonded over dinner discussions on how to best serve their shared Filipino community. Realizing that credit card penetration in most Southeast countries (except Singapore) fell below ten percent, the two decided to use machine learning and data science to unlock financial services for emerging markets. Kevin recalls doing research on the ground by approaching street merchants in Manilla and accessing their financial challenges and aspirations. Plentina has launched an initial partnership with 7-Eleven in the Philippines, where they leverage loyalty programs and co-marketing strategies with merchants to increase sales and generate credit scores for their customers. Plentina has raised an initial seed funding of $2.2M and is actively hiring. Check out their open roles here.