3-minute read
Why we invested in Mirza
Americans face significant barriers accessing essential government benefits due to complex, fragmented application processes. Administrative burden leads to eligible families missing out on crucial support, affecting their reliable participation in the workforce and their financial health. New federal legislation, H.R.1, requires all states to implement expanded work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP, creating additional documentation beginning January 1, 2027. That’s why we invested in Mirza, a company transforming how Americans access public benefits.
Mirza operates a benefits access platform that unifies eligibility screening, application processing, and compliance management across multiple government benefit programs. The company serves three distinct customer segments through a shared technology infrastructure:
Employer Benefits Platform: Organizations purchase Mirza as an employee benefit, with pricing ranging from $4.95-$7.95 per employee per year depending on benefit coverage. On-site launches drive up to 75% eligible employee participation. Employees complete multilingual eligibility screening and the “common app” in under 30 minutes—a process that previously took months. The platform integrates with existing payroll and HRIS systems to pre-populate applications and verify work activity. Mirza tracks users through the entire journey: from eligibility screening (82% completion rate) through application submission (29% rate, before Mirza launched payroll integrations to streamline the process) to benefit receipt, measuring downstream impacts like increased household income and reduced absenteeism.
Medicaid MCO Retention Tool: Health plans pay $0.14 per targeted member per month to reduce preventable disenrollment. The platform automates recertification processes and helps members maintain continuous coverage through complex eligibility redeterminations. This matters because food-secure families cost $1,400-1,800 less annually in healthcare spend, while housing-secure families cost $6,000 less—creating compelling ROI for health plans facing tighter state budgets.
Government Compliance Solution: State and local agencies pay $1.00 per serviceable user per year plus service fees of $65K-$100K per integration. Mirza’s middleware layer connects with both modern cloud-based systems and legacy mainframe infrastructure, automating work verification requirements mandated by H.R.1. The platform’s benefit-agnostic architecture means adding new benefit categories (SNAP, housing assistance, tax credits) requires configuration rather than complete rebuilds.
Why we invested
Siran Cao and Mel Faxon founded Mirza from deeply personal experience. The team deliberately built infrastructure for childcare first, the most fragmented and complex benefit category, creating technical advantages that competitors can’t easily replicate. Their multi-channel distribution strategy provides resilience through diversification: employer contracts generate immediate revenue, Medicaid MCOs offer scale through member populations, and government partnerships create market validation. The team has proven their pilot-to-expansion model works, achieving 10x growth with customers including the United Federation of Teachers and some of the county’s largest payers. With existing payroll integrations positioning them uniquely for work verification requirements, we’re excited to support Mirza as they expand across benefit categories and distribution channels while serving a critical population during a major policy transition.
Siran Cao and Mel Faxon
Impact
Mirza serves low-and-moderate income American households who face the highest barriers to benefits access, a core focus of our economic mobility investing. 63% of their users have never worked with benefits navigation assistance before, and 77% of users who complete screening are eligible for at least one benefit—averaging 2.5 benefits per household. Access to benefits translates into measurable economic relief: families accessing childcare subsidies save an average of $14,052 annually, enabling increased workforce participation. Data from one of Mirza’s largest partners showed 42% of users report increased household income after securing benefits, with employers seeing 20-30% reductions in absenteeism and up to 60% reductions in turnover. The mobile-first, multilingual design prioritizes digital accessibility for users with lower literacy or language barriers, while delivering services through trusted partners reduces stigma. Mirza reduces administrative burden and improves benefits uptake, turning bureaucratic friction into streamlined access that strengthens financial resilience at both the household and system level.
Product images:
