Binti: Empowering Better Outcomes in Child Welfare through Modern Technology & AI

“Every child deserves a safe and loving home, and we’re committed to leveraging modern technology and AI to help social workers make that a reality,” says Felicia Curcuru, co-founder and CEO of Binti.

As the first workflow software in child welfare, Binti empowers social worker’s daily workflows, saving them time and driving outcomes for children and families. Today, Binti partners with over 550 agencies across 36 states – including 12 statewide systems – serving 46 percent of children in care nationwide.

At the heart of Binti lies the personal journey of its co-founder and CEO, Felicia Curcuru. She witnessed the emotional toll of the adoption process firsthand when her sister adopted two children. During that time, Curcuru was also volunteering as a court-appointed special advocate for foster youth and witnessed the nine-year-old she was working with being placed in a group home due to the shortage of foster families.

“I wanted to start a company and I made a list of the problems I cared most about. Child welfare was at the top of that list, so I decided to do something about it,” says Curcuru.

The gap between children in need and available families highlights urgent challenges within the system. Over 400,000 U.S. children are in foster care, 50 percent of which will be homeless and 50 percent of which will enter the criminal justice system by age 17. In addition, the majority of sexually trafficked youth have experienced foster care.

Determined to address this gap, Curcuru spent months shadowing frontline teams and witnessed social workers hampered by overwhelming paperwork and outdated systems.

Using Technology to License More Foster Families More Quickly

Binti began by helping prospective foster and adoptive parents apply online, while supporting social workers in licensing those families. Agencies see immediate impact, with social workers using Binti spending 20–40 percent less time on administrative tasks. On average, agencies see a significant increase in the number of families licensed per year and a reduction in the time to license families. For example, Rhode Island saw a 75 percent reduction in time to approve families after implementing Binti, and since 2022, DePelchin Children’s Center has leveraged Binti to reduce the average time to license foster caregiver applicants by 48 percent, adapting to evolving post-COVID challenges. Between 2023 and 2024, DePelchin also licensed 65 percent more foster families by streamlining processes and strengthening recruitment strategies.

Leveraging AI to Save Social Workers Time

Binti’s commitment to innovation continues with the rollout of advanced AI-powered tools aimed at improving efficiency and accessibility across child welfare. Key features include automatic transcription of family meetings and corresponding population of forms, natural language chat for interacting with case files, and built-in translation to support families in multiple languages.

“It is life changing! It cut down my home study time by 75 percent!” shared one Scott County, MN worker on using Binti’s AI transcription tool.

Using Technology to Keep More Children with Their Families

More recently, Binti has expanded its reach, emerging as a leader in the field’s shift towards upstream intervention, keeping more children with kin or their family of origin.

“While ensuring there are foster & adoptive families available to children is critical, we realized it’s only one aspect of child welfare. We don’t just want to help youth once they’re in foster care. We want to support families so that children don’t have to enter foster care in the first place,” says Curcuru.

Binti released two new modules: Family Finding which helps agencies locate and engage children’s kin, as well as Service Referral Management which helps families access the prevention services they need to stay together.

“One Pennsylvania agency, PA Child, shared a story with us of a child born in 2010 who entered care after his mother passed away in 2016 and his grandparents’ health declined in 2020,” said Curcuru. “Though the father listed on paperwork was unresponsive, the agency used Binti’s Family Finding module to contact a man who ultimately identified himself as the child’s father. This man’s sister is actually a former foster parent and looking to become the child’s caregiver. The agency shared that without Binti, they never would have uncovered this critical potential connection. Stories like this are why we do what we do.”

As Binti continues to innovate, its commitment to transforming child welfare through technology remains unwavering. By licensing more families, emphasizing upstream interventions, and harnessing AI, Binti is not just addressing today’s challenges—it’s shaping a future where every child can thrive in a safe & loving home.