Mona, a new AI-powered financing platform for small businesses, announced a $3.5 million funding round, Sheryl Sandberg’s venture fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, led the round with participation from Alumni Ventures, Wisdom Ventures, and angel investors including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Mastercard, through its Strive USA Innovation Fund, has also backed the platform. Mastercard’s Strive program guides small businesses in areas such as digital transformation.

Mona brings together AI with human coaching for entrepreneurs who use it. Once entrepreneurs register thorugh a process that takes several minutes, the platform’s AI provides them with “best-fit” matches to loans, grants, government funding, and distribution opportunities. It continually searches for funding such as grants and loans for them. Through the partnership with Mastercard, Mona will work with community development financial institutions, chambers of commerce, and other organizations that support small businesses to bring its platform to entrepreneurs.

“Our vision is a world where small business owners across the U.S., no matter where they live in the country or what their background is, can access the capital they need at affordable rates and quickly, and then can get the high-quality financial coaching in their pockets to help them scale said co-founder and CEO Andrew Leon Hanna. “Small businesses create the majority of net new jobs in the U.S., but they’re under-supported in that capital access piece and the coaching piece. There;s over a trillion dollars in funding available per year for small businesses across loans, grants, government funding, incentives, and private grants, but it’s painstakingly difficult for them to access, which really shouldn’t be the case.”

Hanna and c-founder Anny Dow met Sandberg through a pitch competition. Both children of immigrants who founded small businesses, they met at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where Schmidt was Hanna’s professor in a class on entrepreneurship and venture capital. Hanna, a former consultant at McKinsey who holds a JD from Harvard Law School, is also an adjunct professor and executive-in-residence at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is author of 25 Million Sparks: The Untold Story of Refugee Entrepreneurs . Anny Dow, who graduated from Yale University with distinction in cognitive science, is a former senior project manager at Headspace, leading an AI-assisted coaching product, and was a fellow at Brainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation.

“Throughout my career I’ve seen how technology gives even the smallest businesses capabilities that were once available only to much larger companies,” Sandberg said in a statement. “Anny and Andrew are using their deep understanding of this segment to build a platform that will transform how entrepreneurs access capital and financial guidance. This kind of high-quality, personalized guidance will be a gamechanger for businesses.”

Shamina Singh, founder and president of the Center for Inclusive Growth and EVP of Sustainability at Mastercard, said the global payments platform is focused on helping small business owners achieve their goals of stability and sustainability.

“One of the biggest shifts we’re seeing is that small business owners are thinking about capital differently than they did even a few years ago,” said Singh. She pointed to data from Mastercard‘s recent Dreamonomics study , in which 68% of small and medium-sized businesses prioritize stability over fast growth, and more than half (54%) actively avoid unnecessary financial risk.

In an environment characterized by rising costs, economic uncertainty, revenue volatility and intensifying competition, they are seeking financing solutions that help them manage cash flow, build resilience and seize opportunities when they arise, rather than simply borrow for expansion, the study found.

“Access to funding is still critical, but entrepreneurs are increasingly focused on making sure they have the flexibility and stability to navigate uncertainty, not just fuel rapid growth,” she said.

Artists Seren Morey and her husband Jody Bretnall used Mona to secure a $20,000 American Express Shop Small grant for their art supply store, Guerra Paint , in Maspeth, Queens, known for its extensive collection of rare and extinct pigments. “They did their research, figured out who we were, and put it into words better than I could have myself, and we got this grant,” Morey said in an interview.

They purchased the store, founded in 1986 by artist Arthur Guerra, 2,000, navigating several changes of location and the pandemic. “Running a business is freedom, but you pay a high price for that,” she said.

They used the funding for website development, new signs, a mural at the building and a video project. They run a gallery in a conference room at the building, and are planning a rooftop kitchen for events. They are turning to Mona, which they pay $79 a month for its services, to find additional funding. “These are tough times, and, tariffs don’t help,” she said. “Beyond that, and there’s always something — something is always going wrong in small business. You have to be able to juggle so many things all at once, then you have these other emergencies that happen, and you just always feel like you’re pulling your hair out. You need some support on the back end.”

In the Strive program, Mastercard, in conjunction with philanthropic partners, is focusing on guiding small businesses in areas such as digital transformation, to help them address a chaotic economy and find new opportunities.

“I’ve seen time and again that the most successful entrepreneurs don’t just focus on raising money,” said Singh. “They focus on building businesses that are resilient, trusted by their communities and adaptable. When those foundations are in place, access to capital becomes much easier to unlock.”