Applying for financial aid was stressful before COVID-19. Now, it’s too easy for students to miss their chance at relief, said Amira Yahyaoui, an influential activist in Tunisia’s Arab Spring movement who believes education should be free.
“The lack of information out there shouldn’t cost young people their futures,” Yahyaoui said in a statement. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
In 2017, Yahyaoui founded Mos, a startup that crunches data from more than 30,000 sources to help students receive as much financial aid as possible.
The San Francisco company on Wednesday launched “The Ultimate Guide to COVID-19,” an online tool that helps students navigate tuition payments, housing evictions, financial aid delays and more. The tool is powered by a fresh $13 million in Series A funding the company recently received, which includes an investment from Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry. Mos aims to help the 20 million college students and 3.7 million high school seniors whose studies have been disrupted by the pandemic.
“This guide is exactly what students need right now — clarity on the ways COVID-19 impacts their education, and what resources are available to them to help navigate the often complex process of financial aid,” Curry said in a statement.
In 2020, U.S. student loan debt already climbed beyond $1.6 trillion. More than a million eligible applicants missed the deadlines every year to apply for financial relief. The coronavirus aims to exacerbate this problem, as student anxiety levels reach new highs over their uncertain future, according to Mos.
The company’s COVID-19 tool is now free to all, updated daily and includes insight from experts across the financial aid and education sectors. It also, crucially, includes email and letter templates students can use to make housing petitions, information requests, payment deferments and more. The company said millions of students are already eligible for professional judgment appeals related to the coronavirus.
“Students have more rights than they know about to advocate for themselves, seek tuition reimbursements and loan forgiveness, oppose eviction and get answers to their questions,” Yahyaoui said.
Sequoia Capital led the round, and Emerson Collective, Lux Capital and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan also contributed.
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