Latest news with #Alix
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alix Secures $20M Series A to Transform Estate Settlement
New financing from Acrew, Charles Schwab, and Edward Jones Ventures will bolster the company's AI strategy and supercharge growth SAN FRANCISCO, July 21, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alix, a first-of-its-kind wealth transfer platform, today announced a $20 million Series A funding round from Acrew Capital, Charles Schwab and Edward Jones Ventures*. Existing investors Initialized Capital, Scribble, Magnify, Ziegler Link•age Funds, and Cameron Ventures also participated in the oversubscribed Series A round. This additional funding will support the company's growth strategy, bringing the power of AI-enabled estate settlement to more families in need. "In just two years we've grown Alix from a concept to a category-creator. Now we're ready to turn our attention to scaling our business for even greater impact," said Alexandra Mysoor, CEO and Co-founder, Alix. "The support of these leading investors validates our vision to become families' intergenerational wealth management partner and empowers us to strategically support a relatively untapped market of families seeking a better way to settle estates after losing a loved one." Alix is the first and only automated wealth transfer solution designed to simplify the estate settlement process. With today's announcement, Alix has now raised a total of $30.65M. To date the company has been focused on demonstrating proof of concept, customer acquisition and brand awareness, and setting up its partnership infrastructure that brings Alix into distribution partners throughout the US. The new financing will supercharge its agentic AI strategy, enabling Alix to scale its product and onboard new executors faster, create a more seamless experience for customers and build new integrations that further connect estate settlement to the rest of the financial value chain. Additionally, Alix will expand its workforce, adding new AI-focused product and engineering talent, and strengthening its sales teams. Alix is also opening a San Francisco office to capitalize on the Bay Area's primacy in AI, driving the company's product development and innovation goals this year. "Alix has grown in parallel with the tremendous evolution of AI, allowing us to leverage the latest capabilities in the technology to reengineer estate settlement in a way that wasn't possible two years ago," said Hugh Tamassia, co-founder and CTO, Alix. "Our AI-powered system eliminates delays, cuts through bureaucracy, and identifies and distributes assets with speed and precision. Today, we're unlocking millions trapped in slow, outdated processes and are striving towards more advanced capabilities every day. As we continue to build this category, we believe automated estate settlement can become a foundational layer of the future of finance." "We're especially excited to partner with the team at Alix, a company that's taking a bold swing at reimagining the intersection of AI and fintech – two industries that have the power to transform how people settle estates and legacies," said Lauren Kolodny, cofounder, Acrew Capital – Alix's lead investor in this Series A round. Kolodny, who has been named to the Forbes Midas List for three consecutive years, continued, "We believe in the work Alix is doing to create a new category, bringing long-overdue innovation to the wealth settlement space." As the nearly $124T Great Wealth Transfer continues over the next two decades, services like Alix will become more critical. The burden of managing an estate currently takes 12-18 months and up to 900 hours following someone's death. Alix has cracked the code for how to simplify this inherently complex process by providing an AI and automation-assisted partner that guides executors from start to finish. Alix is future-proofing wealth management strategies for the next generation. "Our investment in Alix underscores our commitment to advancing innovation that benefits clients across the wealth management spectrum," said Barry Metzger, Managing Director, Income & Wealth Solutions at Charles Schwab. "Alix blends AI technology with empathetic human expertise to guide and support clients through the estate settlement process – improving efficiency without losing the human touch." "Edward Jones is dedicated to helping our clients prepare for life's transitions, including the complexities of estate settlement," said Greg Robinson, Principal, Edward Jones. "Alix's focus on preserving and protecting wealth for future generations aligns with our ambition to serve more clients, more completely as families navigate the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history." In addition to bolstering its AI strategy, Alix will leverage the new financing to grow awareness of the product through investments in marketing and business development, as well as continue to enhance its customer experience to make it easier for families to navigate estate settlement. To help the Alix team steer its vision, today Alix is also announcing two new board appointments: Lauren Kolodny from Acrew Capital and Andrew Sather from Initialized Capital. For more information about Alix, please visit About Alix Alix is the first and only automated wealth transfer solution designed to simplify the estate settlement process. We combine leading-edge AI technology with empathetic human experts to deliver peace of mind and time back to families when they need it most. Built by the most experienced professionals in the estate settlement industry, Alix uses a mind+machine approach to guide families through every step of the estate settlement journey and easily connect them with the tools, resources, and partners they need to manage and retain their wealth effectively now and for future generations. Learn more at *Edward Jones Ventures invests via JFCA LLC, an affiliate of Edward Jones View source version on Contacts Olu Solankemedia@
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Book Review: 'Royal Gambit' by Daniel O'Malley finds magic in the murder of a royal family member
Author Daniel O'Malley returns to the world of his series he started with 'The Rook' with 'Royal Gambit,' an enjoyable and sometimes unwieldy novel about the supernatural operatives of a paranormal secret service investigating a string of bizarre murders. Gambit centers around the aristocratic Lady Alexandra Mondegreen (Alix) and her investigation into the mysterious murder of her childhood friend, the Prince of Wales. Alix has the unique talent of being able to shatter bones with just a touch of her hand, but she is resented by the other members of the service for the perceived favoritism that comes with her noble title. Her youth was spent as a secret bodyguard to Princess Louise, the woman who now finds herself next in line to the throne. This connection proves useful as the agency's way into investigating who at the palace (or outside of it) could be responsible for the death of the heir apparent and gives Alix a chance to prove her worth as an asset to the agency. O'Malley finds humor in showing how these agents with strange and sometimes absurd powers (one senior official can turn into a stegosaurus at will) adhere to the same bureaucracy and hierarchies as any other government organization. Along with coming to work on time and navigating office politics, there is a chance you will be the victim of a dinosaur stampede or watch your colleague turn into a tree. Alix also emerges as a compelling heroine, driven by her ambition to rise within the ranks of the Checquy and prove herself, yet deeply committed to uncovering the truth behind the tragedy that struck a family she has genuine affection for. A highlight of the book is her sometimes awkward, but humorous journey as a new lady-in-waiting to the princess, having to balance garden lunches with dangerous missions. Although intended as a stand-alone story, O'Malley assumes readers will quickly grasp the complexities of this world and how it operates without much prior knowledge. However, keeping track of the extensive rules and traditions of this secret service and upper-crust English society makes it difficult to keep engaged in the mystery at hand. The book gets bogged down in its mythology and is slow to give us plot developments. Further challenging the pacing of the novel are the constant additions to an over-large cast of characters, all with different supernatural abilities or aristocratic titles. All of these elements lead to a clunky conclusion that too easily ties up loose ends and loses the impact of the tragedy that started the story. The book would have benefited from more clever twists and paranormal action, as opposed to heavy exposition about this super-secret agency and the people who run it. Ultimately, this makes for a fun, elevated beach read for those who enjoy their mystery novels with supernatural leanings and a dry British sense of humor.
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Slow-Burn Summer Thrillers
Two of this month's books are slow-burn stories about summer vacations that devolve into disaster, and one is a techno-thriller about artificial intelligence run amok. You won't be able to guess how any of them end. A Beautiful Family A hum of low-grade unease accompanies a couple and their two daughters as they drive to a New Zealand seaside town in 1985. Their rented house is a disappointment, 'as plain on the outside as a public toilet and not much bigger.' Something is off in the parents' marriage — the mother is distracted, the father resentful. Only 10-year-old Alix, the watchful narrator of Trevelyan's A BEAUTIFUL FAMILY (Doubleday, 310 pp., $28), recognizes that the man next door isn't as harmless as he appears. With her imperfect understanding of the adult world and her longing to keep her family together, Alix is the perfect guide to a story in which so many things are unspoken and unexplained. The book trundles along at a deceptively languid pace until you realize that Trevelyan has expertly set up multiple mysteries that converge, stunningly, late in the game. But for most of the book it looks like a normal vacation. No one's paying much attention to the kids. Alix's surly teenage sister starts shoplifting and sneaking out at night with her sketchy new friends. Thrilled, at least in the abstract, by the tales of a girl who disappeared two years before and is presumed drowned, Alix and a boy she meets embark on a seemingly harmless mission to find the girl's body. Then someone goes missing for real. The Confessions Artificial intelligence is advancing with such terrifying rapidity that it may be outpacing even the fevered imaginations of novelists. In Carr's THE CONFESSIONS (Atria, 324 pp., $28.99), an A.I. model named LLIAM shuts itself down and sends out letters — via the postal service, hilariously — baring the shameful secrets of users around the world. (Maybe the scenario isn't too far-off: In a real-life experiment, an AI chatbot recently exhibited what its creators called 'extreme blackmail behavior,' threatening to expose an engineer's extramarital affair after being fed emails hinting that it might be replaced by a new model.) LLIAM is more advanced than that, making decisions for a billion-plus users: what to eat, whom to marry, where to live, how to carry out their jobs. When it goes rogue by taking itself offline, chaos ensues, paralyzing even the world's most brilliant engineers. Without LLIAM, 'they literally had no idea where to start,' Carr writes. Two people are key to what happens next: the company's chief executive, who took the job when her predecessor suffered an untimely fatal plunge from a rooftop, and the former nun who tried to teach LLIAM how to be humane and who now runs an off-the-grid bookstore. But they're being thwarted by rival forces with their own plans for LLIAM. The story focuses mostly on their race to restart LLIAM and outlines — but doesn't dig deeply into — the interesting details of the catastrophe the shutdown has set off worldwide. But he (yes, LLIAM is a 'he,' by the end) is a terrifying window into the future, either way. The House on Buzzards Bay THE HOUSE ON BUZZARDS BAY (Viking, 276 pp., $30) is set in a seemingly placid town on the southern coast of Massachusetts. It's here that a group of old friends gather for a vacation that, alas, isn't going to be very fun. Jim, whose great-great grandmother built the house, is desperate to resurrect the closeness they all shared in college, now 20 years ago. But the house seems improbably out of sorts, and not everyone shares Jim's nostalgia. 'To keeping things just as they are and never swerving,' one of the group, Bruce, says in a sarcastic toast. 'May we live in museums of generations past.' Things boil over one night when Jim and Bruce exchange angry words, and more. The next morning, Bruce is gone, his room cleared out. Perhaps he's left in a huff. 'It was so like him,' Jim thinks. Murphy's dispassionate style brings to mind the novels of Javier Marías or Katie Kitamura, even as matters in his book descend into the inexplicable. Several people report having frightening, vivid dreams about sex and violence. A mysterious and beguiling woman turns up, declaring that Bruce invited her but acting unruffled by his absence. She also claims to have been married three times, though she looks like she's 25. 'I'm beginning to suspect you appeared this summer with an agenda,' Jim observes. This novel is oddly unclassifiable, and the ending leaves you wondering. Is it a 'Big Chill'-esque story about old friends who learn that the past is a different country? A novel about a haunted house in a malevolent town that doesn't much like outsiders? A murder mystery? Maybe it's all those things.
Time of India
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Braxton Berrios's GF Alix Earle drops collab with Paris Hilton
Braxton Berrios and his girlfriend Alix Earle have been dropping vacation pictures from their St. Tropez getaway and fans have been thrilled with glimpse into their holiday. But Alix dropped something else too recently. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Alix just worked on a commercial for fast food chain Carls Jr and even had a burger named after her. The Queso Crunch burger reportedly has creamy queso, pepper jack cheese, Pico de Gallo and seasoned crunchy Tortilla which are Alix's favorite chip. Paris Hilton joins Alix Earle in a fast food chain commercial And none other than Paris Hilton joined Alix in her commercial! "I honestly couldn't believe it," Alix exclusively told press. "It's the perfect little cameo moment in there." Paris's appearance is not just a cameo but a nod to her iconic Carl's Jr. campaigns of the 2000s which were extremely popular. Paris Hilton's appearance is a reference to old 2000s commercials "It's always fun working with Paris," said Alix who also worked with the singer last year, shared. "She's so smart and so down to earth." She also added, "She's someone who has such an inspiring trajectory. She's always giving me words of wisdom and advice and she's a great role model." Paris Hilton teases her new beauty label in Alix Earle's commercial Paris and Alix also posted their collaboration on Instagram. In the album, Paris and Alix are seen at a Carl's Jr outlet, seemingly for a drive-through order. Paris can also be seen gifting Alix a box of her products from her label Parivie which officially launched on May 7, 2025. Incidentally, Paris developed the label for more than two years alongside co-founder Alexandra Marsh and in partnership with 11:11 Media and Guthy‑Renker. The line features six core skincare products.
The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan review – an immersive but imperfect coming-of-age mystery
Writing a story from a child's perspective works like a filter over a lens. Novels such as Sofie Laguna's The Eye of the Sheep, Craig Silvey's Jasper Jones and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time use a younger person's narration to process darker, adult themes and reveal the mythologies of the adult world. Jennifer Trevelyan's debut A Beautiful Family uses a similar framing to tell an immersive yet imperfect coming-of-age mystery set in New Zealand. It's 1985, and 10-year-old Alix – a tomboyish, inquisitive girl who is never without her red Walkman and Split Enz cassette tape – is on holiday with her family, who have left their Wellington home for the nearby Kāpiti Coast. Her novelist mother normally prefers secluded spots, but this time she has curiously opted for a populous beach town. Between her parents' bickering and her older sister's burgeoning interest in boys and alcohol, Alix has often felt invisible. This has made her a keen observer, and she understands more than people think. At the outset, Alix befriends a 12-year-old Māori boy named Kahu with whom she soon becomes inseparable. He invites her over to his house, which is full of cooking aunties, rowdy cousins and dogs – a contrast to Alix's loving yet somewhat siloed family. One day Kahu tells her about Charlotte, a young girl who drowned in the area a few years prior. The two children decide to search for her missing body, combing the beach and the nearby lagoon for remains. But as their investigation stretches on, other secrets begin to emerge. What is Alix's mother doing on her long walks? And who is the strange old man next door always watching them? Alix grasps at the truth of things, but her perspective means only the reader parses the more adult story unravelling around her. This framing is craftily handled, with Trevelyan building suspense as the underlying narratives coalesce, delving into familial ties, a child's desire for harmony, and the pinballing of a child on the brink of adolescence. Innocence is deftly chipped away, and some unsettling revelations begin to dawn on Alix. 'Now I understood that a family wasn't a particularly solid thing,' she says. 'It was a bubble purely of our own making and just like a bubble, it could burst.' A Beautiful Family is most enriching in Trevelyan's knack for character; Alix, Vanessa and her parents are all distinctive and familiar from the start, even with the story taking place from a single point of view. However, the novel stalls somewhat in pace and plot about halfway through, meandering into overwriting and a surfeit of detail – there are four consecutive pages on Alix's Walkman, for example. The novel's imagery also veers from tactile clarity ('the lagoon, flat and quiet as a bath') to lines a bit sensorially inert. ('The soup had a dusty taste, like the inside of a long unopened cupboard.') There's also a curious undercurrent of racial microaggressions. Alix's mother says that 'Chinese people tend to look alike'. A school friend of Vanessa's, Crystal, mentions a boy with mixed parents has skin with the 'perfect mix'. And when Alix is invited to Kahu's house for lunch, her mother becomes overly concerned about whether there's enough food. Trevelyan handles these inclusions delicately, and some help evoke the flawed nature of her characters. But though they appear to build towards something – an evocation of internalised prejudices, of casual discrimination, of a white child's recognition of cultural difference – they ultimately never really say anything impactful. By the novel's end, Alix and Kahu, having spent the summer playing detective, suddenly stumble across a much darker discovery. Treveylan pulls some of her threads taut while leaving others loose – and yet the secrets she does reveal are predictable and only end up undercutting her otherwise immersive story. Indeed, A Beautiful Family is a charming debut, bringing life to Tolstoy's adage that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, but it gets mired in what turns out to be a lacklustre mystery. Hopefully, Trevelyan's next work will lean more on her evident strengths. A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan is out now in Australia (Allen & Unwin, $32.99), UK (Pan Macmillan, £16.99, £15.29 on the Guardian Bookshop) and the US (Penguin Random House, US$28)
