- Digital immigration and visa solution SimpleCitizen announced it has raised $5.8 million in Seed Plus growth financing led by Kickstart Seed Fund
SimpleCitizen — a digital immigration and visa solution designed for streamlining the immigraton process for people and companies — announced it raised $5.8 million in seed plus growth financing. This round of funding was led by Kickstart Seed Fund with participation from major global investors Pelion Ventures, Peterson Venture Partners, TSVC, Y Combinator, and AppleTree Capital. The additional minor investors include Kima Ventures, Comcast Ventures, LP, and Investo. Including this round of funding, SimpleCitizen has raised more than $6.3 million to date.
“This funding allows us to expand the important work we’re doing to help immigrants and their families navigate an overwhelmingly complex process and start to apply our technology to fulfill the needs of companies looking for a better experience around business visas, work permits, and global immigration,” said Sam Stoddard, CEO and co-founder of SimpleCitizen. “As the visa and immigration process continues to become more convoluted in the current climate, it’s more imperative than ever that we continue to develop new and more efficient ways to work with our customers to streamline access to these important immigration benefits.”
As SimpleCitizen’s direct to customer visa and immigration solution continues to have a massive impact on the lives of the individuals using the service every day, SimpleCitizen is working on expanding its platform to streamline the employer-sponsored visa process for global enterprise companies.
And this round of funding is dedicated to accelerating progress on the corporate case management platform thus enabling businesses to simplify their worker visa programs and reduce costs while improving the employee experience.
“I moved to the U.S. for schooling on a student F1 visa and remained on that status for almost 11 years,” said SimpleCitizen customer George Charbadze. “In 2017, I met and married my wife, a U.S. citizen. From there, we went about changing my immigration status. Because we were both students at the time, we couldn’t afford the exorbitant costs associated with an immigration lawyer – enter SimpleCitizen. It was truly the best decision we’ve made. The application process was simple and straightforward, and the customer service exceptional. Despite U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) still giving me a hard time, SimpleCitizen was always there with a solution. As of August 2019, I am now a legal permanent resident all thanks to SimpleCitizen.”
Millions of individuals, families, employees, and employers are struggling to navigate the complex and outdated government immigration systems around the world every year. And as the only comprehensive solution on the market, SimpleCitizen takes applicants from signup to completion. Plus its software has empowered thousands of immigrants to successfully complete applications and has saved over $16 million in legal fees to date.
“We’ve been investors in and fans of SimpleCitizen since they launched the company in 2015,” explained Curt Roberts, partner at Kickstart Seed Fund. “This is a company and a team that are bringing simplicity and ease to one of the most stressful and challenging problems facing individuals, families, and companies – that of moving from one country to another and being able to live, work, and fully participate in life in their new home.”
