Curiosity has always driven Ulupreneur Fang Cheng. Growing up in Beijing, Fang came of age before the city’s entrepreneurial environment had fully emerged. Even then, she was always thinking outside the box.
While attending university in Shanghai, Fang and a group of fellow students developed a job board for the university newspaper, an idea that was unheard of at the time. A Taiwan-based investor even wanted to invest, but the university had no mechanism in place to accept the funding.
Fang later came to the United States and earned her PhD in bioinformatics at NYU, collaborating with Harvard Medical School and Cambridge on projects for her thesis. She went on to build two successful companies that were acquired, one by Amazon and the other by a private equity firm. Her previous venture, Linc, grew to assist over $40B in GMV for leading brands, where she met her Caeli co-founder, Ting-Yi Yang, six years ago.
The idea for Caeli grew partly from Fang’s own frustrating experience with employee benefits. While setting up a benefits program for a previous company, she was also managing healthcare challenges involving her daughter.
“That was when she realized how difficult benefit programs made it for people to understand what they could spend their dollars on and how to use the funds available to them.”
One year, she completely missed the opportunity to submit a dependent reimbursement claim and lost $6,000.
Fang created Caeli out of those frustrations, and she is passionate about helping employers and employees maximize their HSA and FSA benefits. We caught up with her as the company reached several exciting new milestones.
What is Caeli?
Caeli is the first consumer-gated benefits-maxxing agent built to help 150 million Americans reclaim billions in unused health dollars. Instead of forcing consumers to navigate clunky health portals or dig through eligibility spreadsheets, Caeli meets shoppers right where they already shop online.
Through real-time browser intelligence, Caeli automatically flags eligible items on retailer sites, allows shoppers to split funds across multiple accounts at checkout, and automatically vaults receipts for future tax-free reimbursements. Crucially, Caeli embeds a seamless 2-minute telehealth intake directly into the checkout flow to instantly generate clinician-approved Letters of Medical Necessity (LMNs)—unlocking pre-tax HSA/FSA coverage for everyday wellness categories like air purifiers, ergonomic setup, and sleep tech.
“Our economic model requires no payment from the employer and no payment from the consumer using the tool, creating a true win-win for everyone involved.”
How has it been working with Ulu?
Ulu has been great. They joined our pre-seed round, and we really appreciate their commitment and flexibility. Ulu partners Steve Reale and Maria Salamanca are just amazing people. They truly understand that, at this stage, a business is still figuring things out.
We may have a hypothesis, but that hypothesis needs to be tested in the most effective way. It also needs to be vetted so we can see how the market responds to us. Ulu understands and supports that learning mindset.
“Ulu is a very grounded investor that focuses on the success of the business. The team gives entrepreneurs a clear way of thinking about their companies and helps shield us from a lot of noise.”
What advice would you give founders who are fundraising?
Being authentic and staying true to your story are key. Entrepreneurs tend to overthink what investors want and then tell them what they think they want to hear. Instead, founders should spend more time asking themselves why they believe in their mission and what story they want to tell.
Let your passion drive your story. If you are focused on what you think an investor wants, you are playing someone else’s game at that point.
What are some of your recent milestones?
We have officially surpassed our goal of reaching 10,000 users! Caeli is currently ranked No. 1 in the HSA and FSA shopping-assistance category on the Chrome Web Store, where it has a 5.0-star rating.
We also recently launched our employer referral program in time for Open Enrollment. The program gives HR and benefits teams a plug-and-play way to help employees maximize their pre-tax benefits and employer perks. It reduces support tickets for HR teams while generating bottom-line tax savings.
We will also soon launch our Safari extension and mobile app.
What are your dreams for Caeli?
My dream is to make benefits-maxing the norm. Today, 42% of people waste some of their benefit dollars. Benefits represent a massive wallet, but they have never been treated as a consumer product.
We want consumers to make savvy use of the benefits they have earned without adding another administrative hassle to their lives. Making that a reality is the dream.
