Mia Share has raised $6.5 million in a seed round to grow its platform that streamlines digital payment options for trade and technical schools.
The firm will use the new capital to add product features, onboard new users and expand its customer service team, Mia Share said in a Monday (Feb. 12) press release emailed to PYMNTS.
“The majority of trade schools across the country are accepting tuition payments in house and through antiquated ways,” Joshua Haghani, CEO and founder of Mia Share, said in the release. “They need a tailored solution that can handle collections, provide meaningful data and reporting, and interface with students on their behalf.”
Mia Share’s payments platform allows trade and technical school administrators to manage tuition options, collect payments, send invoices and view data and reports, according to the release. It also provides insights on applications, enrollment, attribution and accounts receivable (AR).
For the students of these schools, Mia Share provides a portal that provides access to application status, payment history, payment plans and upcoming payments, the release said. The platform also offers notifications and human customer service and collections support.
The platform is currently being used by more than 200 schools across the country, according to the press release.
Mia Share’s seed round was led by TTV Capital, per the release.
“We always look at external market conditions, product-market fit and the founding team when deciding whether to make an initial investment,” Lizzie Guynn, partner at TTV Capital, said in the release. “When we learned how trade and technical schools have been historically underserved by software solutions, and how program enrollment is on the rise across the country, we saw a huge opportunity.”
PYMNTS Intelligence has found that 68% of students want to consolidate every school function into one app. However, only 26% of students are currently able to access tuition payments via an app, according to “Making the Grade: Promoting Faster Payments in Education,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Payments collaboration.
In another recent development in this space, Nuvei and Esenda said in October that they have joined forces to unveil a digital tuition fee collection platform.
This partnership combines Nuvei’s payments technology with Esenda’s fee management platform to let students make payments for tuition fees, extracurricular activities and other school fees.