AI startup Alma raised $17 million in a Series A round

Alma, an American AI-powered LegalTech startup that helps companies resolve immigration issues and process work visas for employees, has raised $17 million in a Series A funding round.

Alma was founded in 2023 by Aizada Marat and Asel Tuleubayeva. Aizada Marat grew up in a village in Kyrgyzstan and came to the US at age 17 on the FLEX exchange program, later graduating from Harvard Law School. Asel Tuleubayeva is from Kazakhstan, previously worked as a product manager at the FinTech company Step, and graduated from Harvard Business School. Shuo Chen, a former engineering manager at Uber, is also part of the founding team. Together, they have gone through approximately 15 different visa processes.

In its early stages, Alma raised $5.5 million in Pre-Seed and Seed rounds. Among the initial investors were Village Global, with additional investments from Bling Capital, Forerunner Ventures, NFX, Conviction, MVP Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and Silkroad Innovation Hub.

The new round was led by Bling Capital. Other investors include Benjamin Ling, Forerunner, MVP Ventures, Conviction, New Enterprise Associates, Interplay, Village Global, NFX, Silkroad Innovation Hub, and Martin Rüdiger. Alma’s business angels include John and Patrick Collison, Amjad Masad, and Guillermo Rauch.

Alma positions itself as an immigration law firm that uses software to automate routine tasks. This allows in-house lawyers to focus on strategy, decision-making, and working with corporate employees.

According to Alma, its lawyers help HR teams save 80% of their time, maintain an approval rate above 98%, and process visas within two to three weeks. The company’s O-1 and EB-1 visa approval rates are also 20–30% higher than the national average.

Source: Aizada Marat