Lauren Kolodny, a partner at Acrew Capital, has long been an advocate for leveraging technology to make financial services more accessible to the average person. Her vision came to fruition when she took a chance on Chime, a neobank focused on serving the working class. Despite facing skepticism from investors in 2016, Kolodny backed Chime with a $9 million Series A extension, which ultimately paid off when the company went public at a $14.5 billion valuation.

Kolodny's passion for investing in tech solutions that empower consumers to maximize their resources continues to this day. She recently led a $20 million Series A investment in Alix, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to automate the estate settlement process. Alix was founded by Alexandra Mysoor, who was inspired to create the company after spending 900 hours and 18 months settling her best friend's late mother's estate.

"I was shocked that this process was so hard," Mysoor told TechCrunch. "It's paper-driven. It's archaic. You're googling to-do lists that are not helpful. You're calling attorneys who might do a sliver of the work, and they cost thousands and thousands of dollars."

Mysoor recognized that AI could streamline some of the most labor-intensive aspects of trust administration, such as scanning and extracting data from documents, pre-populating complex forms, and communicating with banks. When Kolodny learned about Alix's mission, she was deeply moved by the issue.

Kolodny realized that as trillions of dollars are set to transfer to millennial and Gen Z generations over the next two decades, the paperwork surrounding estate settlement remains a burden on those grieving the loss of their parents. While some startups offer assistance with closing accounts as part of their bereavement support, Kolodny discovered that no companies provided comprehensive, start-to-finish estate settlement services.

"It was this real aha moment for me. This is exactly the kind of problem that AI should be solving," Kolodny told TechCrunch.

Kolodny believes that Alix is among the first of many startups powered by AI that will democratize financial services and administrative processes, which were historically available only to the ultra-wealthy. Alix's fee structure is 1% of an estate's value. However, for inheritances under $1 million, customers can expect to pay between $9,000 and $12,000, with the exact cost determined by the complexity of the estate.