PRE-SEED · CONFIDENTIAL

The AI Back Office Turning Independent Operators into Bankable Enterprises.

Uniting daily operations, cash-flow automation, and continuous Open Finance readiness to bridge the gap between everyday businesses and the $222B community finance sector.

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STAWI.AI·PHAROH MARTIN, FOUNDER & CEO

01The Problem

Capital is liquid. The intake rail is broken.

Underserved small businesses represent a massive, viable commercial base, choked by a 90-day manual paperwork bottleneck.

The Capital Lockup

CDFIs and mission lenders hold billions in lending capital and mandatory federal Technical Assistance (TA) grants to serve the 33M operators outside traditional banking.

The Real Bottleneck

The issue is not business viability; it is capacity. Loan coaches spend up to 70% of their time acting as basic bookkeepers, triaging spreadsheets, hunting missing bank PDFs, and assembling business plans manually.

The Cost of Delay

By the time a 90-day manual intake cycle concludes, operational costs have multiplied 3.2x and the small business's growth window has closed.

$8.5B

Annual Credit Gap

Capital ready for deployment but stalled in intake friction.

90 Days

Average Intake Cycle

Manual document prep, triage, and data entry.

70%

Wasted Coach Capacity

Technical assistance teams bogged down as manual accountants.

02The Solution

A Co-Pilot for the founder. Capital readiness for the lender.

Stawi bridges the gap by providing a dual-sided operating system.

The AI Back Office

For the Operator

A plain-English Co-Pilot that watches the business all day. It tracks Google Business leads, monitors trackable links, and triggers 'The Fixer' to chase unpaid invoices and missed appointments.

Open Finance Ingest

The Bridge

Connects bank, accounting, and POS data in minutes. No manual data entry.

Automated Readiness

For the Lender

Translates daily operations and cash flow into a pristine, CDFI-grade CFO Insight Report.

03Product Workflow

From first click to funded: the automated flywheel.

01

Operate

The business uses Stawi's Growth Engine to track links, leads, and payment conversions.

02

Analyze

The Co-Pilot normalizes 18 months of Open Finance cash flow, watching the math and flagging risk signals.

03

Package

Stawi autonomously compiles these verified operations into a compliant CFO Insight Report.

04

Deploy

The CDFI reviews an explainable, auditable decision packet in 90 minutes instead of 90 days.

04Business Model

B2B2B SaaS funded by federal technical assistance mandates.

We do not compete with CDFIs; we serve as their automated readiness infrastructure. Our contracts are funded directly out of the hundreds of millions in mandatory federal TA and state SSBCI grants awarded to lenders annually.

Platform License

Per CDFI / State Agency

$35K – $120K/yr

Decision Fee

Per readiness cycle

$25 – $75

Enterprise PaaS

National corporate impact funds

White-label

05The Strategy

A national footprint from Day One.

A coordinated, tri-anchor expansion across the three most critical hubs of capital, policy, and venture.

CA

California

Product & West Coast Pilots

Deploying with Central Valley and Bay Area lenders (Access Plus Capital, Working Solutions) while tapping Silicon Valley infrastructure funds.

DC

Washington, D.C.

Policy & Urban Scale

Engaging federal programs (Treasury CDFI Fund, SBA) and urban CDFIs (Wacif), positioning for Zeal Capital Partners.

NC

North Carolina

Distribution Aggregators

Anchored in the historic heart of Black-led banking (CSBDF), a direct bridge to the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs for national consortium rollout.

06Traction

Validated by operators. Funded by grants.

01

Phase 1 · Q4 2026

Live Pilots

Targeting 3 to 4 paid pilots ($100K+ grant-funded ARR) with Access Plus Capital, CSBDF, and Wacif.

02

Phase 2 · Q1 2027

The Aggregators

Launching a multi-CDFI pilot consortium with the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs.

03

Phase 3 · 2027

Institutional Scale

Expanding to 15+ CDFI contracts ($600K to $1M ARR), driving toward a $1.5M to $2.5M Seed round.

04

Phase 4 · 2028+

Enterprise Infrastructure

Securing statewide SSBCI contracts (CalOSBA, NC Rural Center) and white-label PaaS distribution via Lendistry.

07The Moat

Defensible by data, distribution, and trust.

Behavioral Data Moat

By providing the Co-Pilot the founder uses daily for marketing and operations, we capture real-time behavioral signals no incumbent bank can replicate.

Distribution Lock

Embedded inside CDFI workflows via multi-year contracts funded by federal dollars.

Regulatory Trust

Built CDFI-first. Compliance and algorithmic explainability are features, not afterthoughts.

08The Team

Strategic Leadership (In Formation)

Proven operators bridging civic policy, community finance, and enterprise scale.

Pharoh Martin

Founder & CEO

Executive Leadership & Product

Former D.C. Government Communications Director and award-winning enterprise brand strategist (Adidas Basketball, Cannes Lions, Clio) disciplined by 8 years of military service. Combines 20+ years of high-stakes storytelling, civic policy navigation, and operational rigor to turn everyday business workflows into bankable capital readiness. Entrepreneurial MBA candidate at William Jewell College and a B.A. from Howard University.

Larry Williams Jr.

Head of Ecosystem Strategy (In Formation)

Capital Access & Alliances

National coalition builder, technologist, and policy advisor working at the nexus of emerging technology, financial policy, and economic democracy. Managing Director of UnionBase and former Executive Director of Black Men Vote, with work featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and TEDx. Architect of multi-stakeholder alliances unlocking structured capital pipelines and institutional distribution across historically underserved business ecosystems.

Dr. Phela Townsend

Head of Organizational Systems & Governance (In Formation)

Systems Architecture & Governance

Organizational strategist and scholar specializing in labor economics, institutional governance, and the impact of AI on access to capital. Doctoral researcher examining how digital systems and algorithms reshape opportunity in local economies. Oversees Stawi's operational integrity, workforce readiness frameworks, and responsible algorithmic design to ensure complete regulatory and institutional trust.

Brooke Waupsh

Strategic Advisor, Community Banking

Banking Infrastructure & Scale

Veteran community banking and fintech executive who helped scale Kasasa into a national core infrastructure partner serving hundreds of community banks and credit unions across the U.S. Founder & CEO of Swoovy, award-winning growth marketer, and recognized startup leader. Advises Stawi on financial institution GTM, digital core integration, and nationwide lending distribution.

09The Ask

Raising $500K – $1M Pre-Seed to automate capital readiness.

This round scales our tri-anchor pilot deployments into a national distribution consortium, bridging the gap to a $1M+ ARR Seed milestone.

40%

Engineering & AI

Decision agents v2, Open Finance coverage.

35%

Go-to-market

CDFI partnerships, sales, and onboarding.

25%

Compliance & Ops

SOC 2, model governance, customer success.

Target Partners

Zeal Capital Partners

Precursor Ventures

Collide Capital

Black Tech Nation Ventures

PHAROH MARTIN · PHAROH@STAWI.AI · STAWI.AI

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