Carefull, a fintech platform that aims to help banks protect older customers from fraud, scams and “money mistakes,” today announced that it raised $16.5 million in a Series A round led by Fin Capital with participation from TTV Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Commerce Ventures, Montage Ventures and Northwestern Mutual.Bringing the company’s total funding to $19.7 million, co-founder and CEO Todd Rovak says that the proceeds will be put toward expanding NYC-based Carefull’s network of partners, product development and integrating with additional wealth and banking customers.“The rise in usage of digital channels has increased the threats to older adults,” Rovak said. “The pandemic, which forced geographically-dispersed families to assist with and coordinate money issues digitally, is a catalyst for Carefull’s growth, given the issues and threats behind Carefull’s value proposition.”Seniors — for a whole host of reasons, some circumstantial, some health and socioeconomic — are more vulnerable to financial fraud and scams. Studies have calculated that older people lose anywhere from $2.9 billion to $36 billion each year from financial exploitation.There’s no one way to combat money scams targeting older people, especially considering that the vast majority of scams — as high as 72% — are perpetrated by individuals known to the victims, like family members, friends or advisors. But Rovak asserts that his platform, Carefull, can be a useful tool in the broader arsenal of fraud prevention tech.Rovak co-founded Carefull in 2019 with Max Goldman, an old friend and fellow entrepreneur. The former head of Capgemini’s advisory business in North America, Rovak previously launched the product design and development firm Fahrenheit 212, which was acquired by Capgemini in 2016. Goldman, for his part, co-founded Directr, a video creation platform, and spent several years at Google helping to build out the tech giant’s video ad creation business.“We recognized that, today, the bulk of financial innovation and investment is directed to solve the patterns and problems of millennials and Gen Z,” Rovak said

Wellthi, formally known as Invest Sou Sou, is looking to make a big splash in 2023 with an oversubscribed seed round to support its money-management platform focused on the Black community.

The retirement number for American workers just shot up even as their savings went down. Americans age 18 and older anticipate they will need $1.25 million to retire comfortably, a 20% spike since 2021, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2022 Planning & Progress Study released Tuesday. The expected retirement age rose to 64, up from 62.6 last year