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🦄 Unicorner Startup of the Week: Maza
✍️ Notes from the Editors
Welcome back! Today, we’re taking our first look at the complex space that is immigration. We met founder Robbie Figueroa two years ago at LA Tech Week, and we’re excited to bring Maza to you today.
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Finances for undocumented immigrants
Maza is a Los Angeles-based fintech startup for undocumented immigrants. It acts as an intermediary between IRS-certified acceptance agents and users of its platform, making the process of getting a tax identification number easier for the latter. By doing so, Maza provides residents with no social security number access to the rest of the U.S. financial system and is working on keeping them safe from potentially predatory actors such as loan sharks and pawn brokers.
🔗 Check it out: withmaza.com
💰 Business Model
Maza charges users $150 annually for access to its platform.
📈 Traction and Fundraising
Raised $8 million Seed round led by a16z with investors like Abstract Ventures, Global Founders Capital, SVA, BoxGroup, and Restive
Received $41 million in digital payments as of June 28, 2023
Partnered with Visa and Blue Ridge Bank
👫 Founders
Luciano Arango, CEO: Previously Engineering Manager @ Observe.AI, Co-Founder and CTO @ ScopeAI, CTO @ PersistIQ, Software Engineer @ LinkedIn, CS @ Harvard
Robbie Figueroa, COO: Previously General Manager of Puerto Rico @ DoorDash, Co-Founder @ Gayburger Co, Co-Founder @ House.ai, PE Investor @ Pantheon Ventures
Siggy Bilstein, CTO: Previously Software Engineering Manager @ Attentive, CTO @ ALLCALL, Co-Founder & CEO @ Owly, Staff Software Engineer @ Slack, Engineering Manager @ LinkedIn, Software Development Manager @ Egraphs.com, Program Manager @ Microsoft, CS @ Rice University
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💼 Opportunities
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🔮 Our Analysis
With about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, there is certainly a large market for those in need of assistance pertaining to finances. Because undocumented immigrants don’t have SSNs, their access to the U.S. financial system is limited. Maza is tackling this problem by facilitating said immigrants' first step into the U.S. financial system: obtaining a Tax ID number. With an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), customers gain access to services like banking. With 24-hour human support, a refund policy in the case of failure to process an ITIN, and a collection of positive reviews, it seems that Maza puts its customers first. The company’s early adoption of paying users with little online advertising shows that immigrants perceive the value that it is offering. We hope to see more success from the company.
📚 Further Reading
Written by Manvel Muradyan
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