About
Accessible capital.
Without debt.
inara is a structured community capital platform that provides the infrastructure for institutions to run Community Capital Access Programs. These programs help participants access meaningful lump sum capital while simultaneously building saving behavior and financial resilience.
Based in Boston and working alongside community organizations including the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.
Leadership
The Team Behind the Structure.
Richard Holmes is the founder of inara, a structured community capital platform designed to help institutions run Community Capital Access Programs that provide members access to lump sum capital without loans, interest, debt, or credit score requirements.
His work focuses on building disciplined, transparent infrastructure that enables institutions to coordinate contribution based capital access, saving behavior, and financial resilience at scale.
Before founding inara, Richard led multi-unit retail operations, overseeing teams, financial performance, and operational systems across multiple locations. That experience directly informs inara’s emphasis on accountability, system design, and operational reliability.
“Communities do not lack the will to save. They lack structure. inara exists to provide that structure at scale.”
Sam Livingstone
Chief Technology Officer
Sam Livingstone serves as Chief Technology Officer at inara, leading the architecture, engineering, and technical strategy behind the platform. He oversees the design and development of the systems that power Community Capital Access Programs, ensuring the platform is secure, reliable, and built to scale for institutions and the communities they serve.
With experience leading enterprise software initiatives across cloud platforms, product development, and large scale technology programs, Sam brings a disciplined engineering approach focused on operational excellence, security, and long term scalability.
At inara, he leads the development of the mobile applications, payment infrastructure, platform architecture, partner systems, and operational tooling that enable institutions to launch and manage Community Capital Access Programs with confidence. Before joining inara, Sam led technical product and platform initiatives across multiple international institutions.
“Strong technology should feel invisible. When systems are thoughtfully designed, institutions can focus on serving people while the infrastructure works quietly in the background.”
Yao Wang
Platform Quality Lead
Yao Wang serves as Platform Quality Lead at inara, ensuring the platform is reliable, secure, and ready for institutional deployment. She leads quality validation across the platform, working closely with engineering and product teams to identify issues before they reach partners or participants.
With a background in business analytics, data analysis, and quality assurance, Yao brings a structured approach to testing complex workflows, validating system behavior, and protecting data integrity. Her work helps reduce launch risk while continuously improving platform reliability and operational readiness.
At inara, she oversees quality across user workflows, backend systems, and deployment readiness, ensuring every release meets the standards institutions need to confidently operate Community Capital Access Programs.
“Quality isn't added at the end of development. It's built through careful validation, clear communication, and continuous improvement.”
Harmeet Singh
Product Experience Lead
Harmeet serves as Product Experience Lead at inara, guiding the experience across the mobile application, partner portal, website, and internal operational tools. He works closely with engineering, design, and product operations to ensure every part of the platform feels connected, intuitive, and reliable.
With a focus on usability, implementation, and cross-functional collaboration, Harmeet helps transform ideas into polished product experiences. His work reduces friction, improves accessibility, and strengthens the consistency of the platform for both institutional partners and community members.
At inara, he leads product experience across customer-facing and internal systems, ensuring new features are thoughtfully designed, seamlessly implemented, and ready to support Community Capital Access Programs at scale.
“The best products feel effortless. Great experiences come from thoughtful design, careful execution, and constant refinement.”
Jin Li
Website & Experience Lead
Jin leads the development and continuous improvement of inara's public website and digital experience. He transforms complex ideas into clear, accessible interfaces while ensuring the website reflects inara's mission, institutional credibility, and evolving platform. His work bridges design and engineering to create experiences that are both functional and engaging.
With a focus on front-end development, user experience, and implementation, Jin transforms complex ideas into intuitive digital experiences. His work emphasizes usability, performance, and consistency, helping the website evolve alongside the institution's growing platform.
At inara, he develops new features, refines the user experience, and supports the ongoing evolution of the institution's digital presence, ensuring the website reflects the quality, credibility, and innovation behind Community Capital Access Programs.
“Good web experiences make complex ideas feel simple, helping people understand, connect with, and trust the mission behind the technology.”
Vision
Why this model matters.
Millions of people access lump sum capital through high cost credit, not because they lack discipline, but because the infrastructure for structured, debt free capital access and saving behavior has never been built at institutional scale.
Across communities worldwide, people already organize informal savings circles to access capital without loans or interest. These systems work because they rely on contribution behavior and mutual accountability rather than credit scores. Historically, however, they have remained small, informal, and difficult for institutions to support or measure.
inara transforms this model into structured community capital infrastructure.
Instead of lending, institutions sponsor Community Capital Access Programs that allow members to access lump sum capital through structured contribution cohorts. Each cohort follows a transparent contribution cycle supported by engagement infrastructure designed to stabilize participation and improve completion.
This allows institutions to support capital access while avoiding the risks associated with consumer lending.
The result is a model that strengthens saving behavior, circulates capital within communities, and provides institutions with measurable outcomes around participation, completion, and financial resilience.
The long term vision is a network of institution sponsored Community Capital Access Programs operating across cities, nonprofits, universities, workforce programs, and community organizations. The goal is to expand access to capital not through debt, but through structured collective savings that circulate wealth within the communities that generate it.
Selected Programs
CodeLaunch— Acceptance
Startup Grind Pitch Battle— Participation
Long-Term Direction
Responsible institutional expansion.
Structured program growth.
Measured geographic scaling.
Interested in bringing inara to your community?