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Mini City
Techstars '22Atlanta, US · 10 employees on LinkedIn · 2 known investors
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Mini City provides software and tools to help cities, homeless service providers, and community organizations more efficiently assist people experiencing homelessness by reducing barriers to obtaining identification and accessing benefits. The platform serves municipal agencies, community-based organizations, and enterprises working to address homelessness.
Also known as Mini City Atlanta · Mini City Inc
Investors · 2
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
How we know: research · netcapital.com · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026Mini City is an Atlanta, Georgia software company serving homeless care providers, community-based organizations, clinics, municipalities and enterprises that deliver products or benefits to unhoused populations. Its core product is an Android-based application delivered on an on-site tablet kiosk that Mini City installs in an anti-theft holder at a partner location, paired with an administrative portal for caseworkers. Through the kiosk, people experiencing homelessness enter information used to request birth certificates and Social Security cards and to pre-fill applications for government benefits including TANF, Medicaid, food stamps, Emergency Refugee Cash assistance and Grandparents Caring for Grandkids, as well as voter registration; completed forms are emailed to both the caseworker and the citizen. Additional features include an employment profile that captures job history and skills for referral to partner employment agencies and can auto-generate resumes, and "Narrative Goals," qualitative check-in data collected at each kiosk interaction.
The service package extends beyond software to staff training and organizational registration during onboarding, outreach events staffed by at least two Mini City team members, tech support, and "SureAccountability," under which Mini City receives incoming birth records at its mailing center and delivers them to partner sites on a scheduled basis. Partners also receive de-identified Data Insights reports on demographics and usage annually, or quarterly under Data Insights Plus, which organizations can use for grant applications, funding retention and progress measurement. Mini City states its data is housed in an encrypted database portal described as HIPAA compliant to the NIST Cyber Security Framework.
Earlier in the company's history the offering centered on a wearable near-field communication (NFC) device, similar in form to a fitness tracker, that stored an individual's encrypted information and unlocked access to identification, employment, nourishment and wellness services through a membership model.
Founding story
Mini City was founded in Atlanta by India Hayes, a tech designer with more than a decade of domestic and international volunteer experience, and Anita Jones, who worked full-time at the CDC and has a filmmaking background, having produced an award-winning documentary on Atlanta's homeless population. The concept emerged from a group of activists, developers and strategists and was developed through Goodie Hack, a social enterprise startup hackathon. Within six months of founding, the company had partnered with the Salvation Army's Red Shield Services, one of Atlanta's largest homeless shelters.
Business model
Mini City sells its software and service package to organizational partners — homeless care providers and community-based organizations, municipalities working to reduce homelessness, and enterprise corporations offering products or benefits to unhoused populations — rather than charging the individuals served. Delivery combines a provided hardware tablet, one-time setup and installation, staff training and onboarding, ongoing tech support, outreach events, record-retrieval logistics and recurring data reporting. The website lists feature-based pricing packages and offers a free trial to prospective partners.
Partner organizations purchase feature packages tied to a published pricing page. During its pilot phase the product was provided free to shelters, with the stated plan to convert to a monthly subscription rate after proof of concept, supplemented by social enterprise consultation work that grew out of direct shelter engagements.
Traction
The company reports training over 100 caseworkers and housing, serving or positively impacting over 3,000 citizens, and states that it has reduced the time required to obtain legal identification and critical benefits by 90% for municipal and community partners, against partner baselines that had run as long as a year. Mini City reports a presence in more than 20 locations across Georgia. Its initial pilot, launched in 2017 at Salvation Army Red Shield Services and ReStart Atlanta shelters, aimed to secure legal identification and outfit 500 homeless citizens with wearable devices, serving individuals ranging in age from 1 to 61. Its Netcapital Regulation Crowdfunding offering raised $28,418 at a $2 share price.
Latest developments
The company's website markets a free trial and tiered service packages to prospective organizational partners, reports more than 20 partner locations across Georgia, and lists a leadership team of co-founder and CEO India Jha (India Hayes), co-founder and advisor Herold Raymond, CTO Jason Davey and UX/UI designer Kevin Tyler, with advisors including Dr. Sourabh Jha and Atlanta Tech Village co-founder David Lightburn.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Mini City positions itself at the intersection of civic technology and homeless services, focused specifically on the identification and vital-records barrier that blocks access to housing, employment, Medicaid, SSI, TANF and food assistance. In its Awesome Foundation project description the company asserted that no other nonprofit or social enterprise in the United States employed its type of wearable NFC technology to alleviate homelessness. Its investment materials frame the company as an aggregator of otherwise scarce data on unhoused populations, positioning it to serve health systems, insurers and enterprises alongside public agencies.
Mini City combines direct end-user access at the point of service — a provided, installed tablet kiosk inside partner facilities — with back-office automation for caseworkers, physical handling and delivery of returned birth records, and de-identified analytics that partners can use to support grant and funding applications. The company emphasizes a focus on legal identification and vital records as the upstream barrier to benefits, and on aggregating demographic and narrative data about a population that is otherwise sparsely documented.
Technology
An Android-based software application housed on an on-site tablet kiosk, connected to a secured, encrypted database administrative portal that the company describes as HIPAA compliant to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cyber Security Framework. Functionality covers vital-record requests, pre-filled benefits applications, employment profiles and resume auto-generation, and in-app surveys that produce demographic and narrative data for reporting and for use with existing Homeless Management Information Systems. Planned post-API development described in the company's investment materials includes health system and insurer integrations, Medicaid enrollment facilitation, a shelter-bed availability feature linking hospital patients to partner shelters, and an analytics module for health informatics. The company's earlier implementation used wearable NFC devices, supported by tech sponsor Tagstand, to store individual records.
Go-to-market
Direct partnership sales to shelters, clinics, community organizations, municipalities and enterprises, initiated through a contact and partner-request form and a free trial offer on the company website. Adoption typically begins with a free or pilot deployment at a shelter, followed by on-site installation, staff training and outreach events; early traction came through pilots with large Atlanta frontline organizations.
Community-based organizations and homeless care providers such as shelters and clinics; municipalities seeking to curtail homelessness; and enterprise corporations that provide products or benefits to unhoused populations. End users of the kiosk are people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including veterans, children, youth and families; the software is designed around caseworkers, program directors and clinicians.
Geography
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with partner deployments in more than 20 locations across the state of Georgia. The company frames its mission and product around vulnerable populations nationwide in the United States.
History
The company was founded in Atlanta around 2016 and initially pursued a membership model built on wearable NFC devices supplied through tech sponsor Tagstand, unlocking identification, employment, nourishment and wellness services. It received Awesome Foundation funding in Atlanta in March 2017 to support its initial pilot services programming, and launched pilots at Salvation Army Red Shield Services, ReStart Atlanta and additional partner shelters, free to shelters and participants, to gather effectiveness data. The team had grown to four people at the time of that pilot. The product subsequently shifted to an Android tablet kiosk and administrative portal sold to organizational partners, and the company ran a Regulation Crowdfunding equity offering on Netcapital that opened on October 29, 2020 and closed on March 4, 2021.
Risks & controversies
Company leadership has publicly noted that the revenue model was still being determined during the pilot phase and that scaling beyond a few hundred citizens depended on securing additional funding, converting free shelter pilots to paid monthly subscriptions, and addressing standard startup requirements such as product build-out and user testing. Several planned capabilities, including health system and insurance integrations, hospital-to-shelter bed matching and the analytics module, were described as contingent on future API development. The Awesome Foundation chapter page listing the project is marked inactive.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 6
launches, deals, and filingsMini City's Regulation Crowdfunding offering on Netcapital opened on October 29, 2020 at an original share price of $2 and completed on March 4, 2021 having raised $28,418.
$28.4K source ↗
Mini City began a pilot in May to secure legal identification and outfit 500 homeless citizens with wearable NFC devices, working weekly with individuals at the Salvation Army and ReStart Atlanta shelters.
The Awesome Foundation's Atlanta, GA chapter funded Mini City's project, which sought support for the company's initial pilot services programming using wearable NFC technology.
Mini City used captured user data to place program participants into job opportunities and first interviews through partner relationships including First Step Staffing.
Within six months of founding, Mini City partnered with the Salvation Army's Red Shield Services, one of Atlanta's largest homeless shelters, to launch a pilot program free to the shelter and participants, with two additional partner shelters planned.
Mini City's wearable NFC device offering was enabled by tech sponsor Tagstand, a provider of NFC and tech-enabled wearable devices.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Mini Cityminicityatl.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Mini City do?
- Atlanta-based Mini City sells tablet-based software that helps shelters, clinics and cities get IDs and benefits for unhoused people.
- Who are Mini City's investors?
- Mini City's investors include Techstars, Portal.
- Where is Mini City headquartered?
- Mini City is headquartered in Atlanta, US.