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Cheyenne, Wyo – The Wyoming Business Council (WBC) is excited to announce its latest direct equity investment from the federally funded Wyoming Venture Capital (WYVC) Fund in Mia Share, Inc. Founded in 2019 by CEO Joshua Haghani, Mia Share is a FinTech company specializing in streamlining digital payments for trade and technical schools, headquartered in Jackson, Wyo.
Mia Share builds, manages, and funds custom tuition solutions for high-quality trade and technical schools that prioritize student outcomes. Mia Share facilitates student payments for trade and technical schools through specialized software and human support. Mia Share allows more students to pursue affordable, valuable education while helping partner schools improve enrollment, retention, and outcomes.
“Founded in Wilson, Josh has used Wyoming as their proving ground developing the minimum viable product and now current platform,” said Gordon Finnegan, WBC Equity Portfolio Manager. “Through early partnerships with trade schools, such as Wyoming-based Western Welding Academy, Mia Share has helped both Wyoming companies and young professionals increase productivity and subsequent incomes.”
In 2021, Mia Share won both the panelist and audience choice awards at Silicon Couloir’s Pitch Day in Jackson. The company has proven its ability to build a market-leading product using partnerships and support from stakeholders across the state. When going into the 2023 financing round, Mia Share and WYVC worked closely together to align impactful outcomes of investment and support agreeable terms with leading private investors.
Mia Share plays a significant role in the education sector by providing custom tuition services for trade and technical schools. Their platform manages and funds custom tuition services, facilitating custom single payments, income share agreements, payment plans, and hybrid structures. This enables students to pursue affordable and valuable education. They have educated over 8,500 students and cover more than 25 trade industries. Their hands-on approach and provision of career placement resources ensure student success and tuition repayment.
In terms of impact, Mia Share has made a substantial contribution to the education landscape in Wyoming and beyond. They have helped some of their partners increase their enrollment rates by over 10x. For their largest school partner, they have increased collection rates by over 20%, resulting in over $1.5 million additional annual revenue. By providing students with more payment choices, they increase accessibility and improve satisfaction. About 85% of students benefit from financial assistance while in school. Their services have been praised by school owners for increasing enrollment, improving collections, decreasing costs, and saving time.
“We started Mia Share in spring of 2020, which was a difficult time for everyone. But I learned that when you build in tough times, it sets a strong foundation,” said CEO Josh Haghani. “We’ve come a long way from onboarding our very first trade school Western Welding Academy to now managing payments and collections for more than 200 trade and technical schools across Wyoming and the rest of the country. We’re grateful for the support of WYVC who have helped in far more ways than just financial. I am excited to have Gordon, Bert and the state of Wyoming as a core Mia Share partner.”
The WYVC team continues to finalize direct investments in several other companies and work through diligence with multiple others. The team is also working closely with Wyoming-focused emerging venture capital firms to support raising their first funds as part of WYVC’s fund strategy.
Learn More about Mia Share at https://www.miashare.com/.