For many, the email inbox is just another source of stress, getting more and more bloated every day as it’s inundated with redundant notifications, uninteresting newsletters, endless promotions, and the inevitable spam. As a result, most consumers find themselves in one of two camps: those who have to delete dozens of emails every day just to keep things under control, and those who have given up and now have tens of thousands of unreads sitting in their inboxes.
But both of these users have one thing in common: They’re unaware of just how much savings is tucked away in these emails.
Every year, consumers miss out on billions of dollars as they mass-delete seemingly unimportant emails or let them pile up in their inboxes. Whether they’re price adjustments for products they just purchased, compensation for missed flights, or class-action settlement opportunities, the savings that so many consumers rely on are all too often right under their noses.
Kamal Nahas and Anthony Rassi set out to solve this problem by creating PAP!, a first-of-its-kind AI technology that’s capable of reclaiming these savings. PAP! lives in your email, uncovering overlooked savings and proactively securing them on your behalf. It automatically claims refunds from price drops, obtains compensation for delayed flights, reimburses eligible HSA/FSA purchases, and enrolls you in beneficial settlements — all without you lifting a finger.
Investors worldwide see the potential of this platform: Since creating PAP!, Kamal and Anthony have raised over $2.6 million in funding from investors like the Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and NFX — bringing PAP!’s post-money valuation to $20 million.
Here’s why PAP! deserves a place in your inbox as your personal CFO.
From Young Entrepreneurship to Consumer Fintech
Kamal Nahas and Anthony Rassi took their first steps into entrepreneurship at just 15 years old. Growing up in Beirut, Lebanon, they didn’t have access to Amazon’s wide catalog and convenient shipping — and neither did their fellow students. But they also knew of several regular travelers between Lebanon and Paris, and a solution started to take form. What if they leveraged that flow as a delivery mechanism?
Soon, any Lebanese high school student could request a product, and it would be shipped to Paris and brought to Lebanon via a traveler in Kamal and Anthony’s network. It was the only way for consumers to get their hands on a near-limitless number of products that were unavailable in the region, and the two entrepreneurs were able to charge a premium and bring in five figures of revenue while they were still teenagers.
Though this was their first endeavor into consumer and shopping tech, it certainly wasn’t their last. Soon, they would fixate on modern consumer spending, determined to find ways to help consumers save money.
They soon realized that email data held the keys to unlocking these massive savings. After all, somewhere buried in the deluge of emails that consumers get every day is valuable information like:
- Price Adjustments: If you purchase a $50 T-shirt only for the price to get slashed to $30 two weeks later, many retailers would allow you to request a $20 refund.
- Flight Delay Compensation: Law in some countries and policy in others, you’re entitled to compensation due to flight delays or cancellations — both of which you’re notified of through email.
- Class-Action Settlements: Your emails also indicate whether you’re subscribed to a service that now has to pay out class-action settlements after overcharging or misleading its customers.
However, Kamal and Anthony soon identified a major hurdle when it comes to actually finding and capitalizing on this information.
AI-Powered Data Parsing: The Game-Changer
The problem was that it wasn’t exactly easy to help users reclaim the money they’re naturally entitled to. While all the necessary information was there (product details, flight numbers, subscription start dates, etc.), existing platforms couldn’t always read it very well. Before modern tech like large language models and artificial intelligence as a whole, analytics had to be performed by brute force and were limited to rigid structures like databases and predefined data types. There was no good way to analyze dynamic information like emails with rich text, imagery, and other formatting.
Furthermore, each source had its own way of representing data like price reductions and flight cancellations. This meant that any comprehensive solution would need to create different functions for each source — a completely unfeasible, unsustainable task.
Like in so many other use cases, the perfect solution here was artificial intelligence. Instead of writing a one-off parser for each individual data source, AI can now be used to understand any given email format and extract all essential information — every time.
PAP!: Your Personal CFO
What was previously impossible turned out to be the foundational technology behind PAP!, Kamal and Anthony’s app that automatically ingests email data and alerts users to savings. Rather than requiring rules and workflows for each specific source, PAP!’s advanced AI model learns from patterns and extracts information from the emails sent by everyone from fashion retailers to niche online bookstores.
How it works is simple:
- Account Creation: Users securely connect their email account to PAP!
- Automatic Data Collection: PAP!’s AI scans incoming and existing emails for information like purchase confirmations, travel itineraries, and subscription notices.
- Opportunity Detection: The system flags all potential savings, including price adjustments, flight delay compensation, and class-action suit eligibility. For example, if you get a receipt for a $50 purchase, PAP! will automatically check the retailer’s site for a price decrease.
- Autonomous Claims: PAP! contacts customer service and asks for a refund, files necessary paperwork for flight cancellation compensation, or follows up on class action opportunities — all without any extra steps from the user.
This set-it-and-forget-it approach means consumers can start unlocking consistent savings without having to lift a finger. Like a corporate CFO actively finds ways to save a company money, PAP! is your personal CFO that works silently but actively in the background, finding savings that would never have been discovered otherwise.
By transforming the humble email receipt into a treasure trove of actionable data, PAP! is empowering consumers to reclaim control over their finances — one receipt at a time.
The Impact of PAP! and Visions for the Future
PAP! is already achieving significant results for its users. Customers report saving about $20 each month, which is double the savings secured by popular options like Honey. These savings include those from over 300 retailers, from global brands to specialty boutiques.
Kamal and Anthony’s success with PAP! has motivated them to continue finding ways to unlock consumer savings. This momentum has propelled them forward and led to the development of a tool they call Linda.
While PAP! focuses on optimizing spending post-sale, Linda specializes in helping consumers save money before they ever even spend it. It’s a pre-purchase AI concierge that scours the internet for savings, whether they’re coupon codes, promotional pricing, or even hidden, exclusive discounts. All you have to do is text Linda and tell it what you want to purchase — if a discount exists, Linda will find it.
The goal, Kamal and Anthony shares, is to provide a holistic shopping experience for consumers that allows them to claim their rightful savings and protect their precious resources.
And as inflation continues to skyrocket and everyday consumers struggle with escalating prices, initiatives like PAP! and Linda are going a long way toward easing these burdens and empowering consumers to watch their wallets with more diligence than ever before.