Kaizen raises USD $21 million to modernise public services tech

Kaizen has secured a Series A funding round of USD $21 million to boost its focus on people-first technology solutions for public services across the United States.

The funding round was led by NEA with participation from 776, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and Carpenter Capital. This latest investment brings Kaizen's total capital raised to USD $35 million.

Kaizen's platform is currently active in more than 50 agencies across 17 states, serving more than 30 million residents. The company provides a unified commerce platform aimed at modernising essential public-facing government services, such as parks, transit, DMVs, licensing, and payments. Next month, the company is expected to launch its solution with Maricopa County, AZ, providing services to over four million residents.

Market focus

Kaizen is focused on upgrading "resident services" - public-facing institutions that provide services and facilitate high-volume transactions. Areas covered include parks and recreation, transit authorities, hunting and fishing licences, utility billing, courts management, passport renewals, social security, and tax filing.

The company's goal is to replace the outdated, often cumbersome systems that many agencies currently use, described as slow and difficult for both public servants and residents.

"Kaizen is focused on the most fundamental American services that we use every day - the parks, transit, licensing, the everyday systems that quietly hold our communities together. That clarity of mission has accelerated their growth and embodies exactly what the American Dynamism movement stands for to ensure our government is working at the speed of technology and serving our national interests," said Katherine Boyle, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz who co-leads the firm's American Dynamism practice.

Kaizen's platform can be tailored by agencies to rapidly launch service offerings, manage operations, and process payments, aiming to improve the experience for both residents and administrators. The company reports that its customer base has grown ten-fold since the start of 2024 and that its annual recurring revenue increased nine-fold year-on-year.

Technology and partnerships

Kaizen unifies public sector transactions and provides digital interfaces for both users and agency administrators. The technology's impact has already been demonstrated in states such as Maryland, where a new day-pass system for state parks was delivered in less than 60 days, leading to a reduction in traffic jams, an improvement in visitor satisfaction, and cost savings on staff overtime.

Paul Peditto, Assistant Secretary of Land Resources at Maryland DNR, commented: "As a career public servant with 30 years at the Department of Natural Resources, I can say without hesitation that this initiative is one of the most meaningful changes we've implemented to expand and safeguard public access while ensuring equitable access to our public lands."

Kaizen has announced recent partnerships with Maricopa County, Arizona; San Bernardino County, California; Suffolk County, New York; and the Cherokee Nation, the country's largest tribal organisation. The company plans to increase its team from 30 to 50 employees by early next year, with further expansion into federal agencies and new service verticals such as courts management and licensing on the horizon.

Leadership insights

"American citizens have been worn down into accepting second-class solutions when it comes to public service technology," said Nikhil Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Kaizen. "Think about it, when was the last time you had a delightful experience booking a DMV appointment or reserving a campsite at a state park? IRS.gov logged over 275 million visits in a recent filing season, and federal park sites receive nearly a billion visits a year. Imagine if each of those interactions were just flat out excellent - seamless, discoverable, and optimized for an AI-native world. If we raise our expectations of what public service technology can and should be, we can transform not just someone's day or weekend, but how millions of people experience the impact of their taxpayer dollars. Our country has an extraordinary legacy of using design to create enduring icons - from monuments and infrastructure to public spaces. So why should the technology powering our most widely used and impactful resident services be any different?"

Alexis Ohanian, Founder and General Partner at 776, who will also join Kaizen's board, stated: "In so many places around the world, public services run on technology that's every bit as good as what we use in our daily lives - sometimes better. There's no reason America shouldn't aim just as high. Kaizen is building the backbone for public services that reflect the beauty, ambition, and potential of the society they serve."

KJ Shah, Kaizen's co-founder, highlighted the need for systems purpose-built for public service, rather than solutions created through corporate acquisition. "For decades, public servants have been forced to use stagnant software built through acquisitions, not product innovation. Our agencies need and deserve a platform built natively and designed to grow with them," he said.

Other investors also emphasised Kaizen's approach. Amit Kumar, Partner at Accel, said: "Kaizen is tackling one of the toughest areas in technology and doing it with precision and purpose. Nikhil sees opportunity where others see complexity, and his team is proving that public services can be modern, efficient, and built around the people they serve."

Andrew Schoen, Partner at NEA, also commented: "Public services impact hundreds of millions of people every day in the US alone, yet their technologies often lag far behind the seamless digital experiences modern consumers expect. We're thrilled to back Nikhil, KJ, and the Kaizen team as they bring streamlined, thoughtfully-designed, AI-native experiences to government services, already reaching more than 30 million residents across 17 states and 50 agencies."