Rasa Legal, a Salt Lake City legal technology company that helps people clear criminal records, announced on 11 March 2026 that it had raised $5m in a late seed round. Rethink Education led the round, with participation from Social Finance, Halogen Ventures, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and others.
ImpactAlpha, reporting the round, described Halogen Ventures as an investor in women-led startups and the Richard King Mellon Foundation as a place-based funder that invested to support Rasa's focus on Pittsburgh. No valuation was disclosed.
“I started this company four years ago, with a dream to build an app to help people clear their criminal records and access new opportunities in life.”Noella Sudbury, Founder and CEO, Rasa Legal
What Rasa Legal does
Rasa's platform streamlines the sealing and expungement of criminal records under state law. It includes a mobile-friendly eligibility tool that gives instant legal information about a person's record and whether it can be sealed or expunged, and the company's lawyers handle cases for eligible people. According to the announcement, the platform can also connect users to scholarships, education, health insurance and fair-chance hiring opportunities.
The company was founded by Noella Sudbury, a lawyer and former public defender. The press release said she previously led Utah's Clean Slate campaign, which resulted in automated record clearance relief for more than 500,000 Utahns.
Traction
Rasa launched its platform in September 2022. Since then more than 26,000 people have used its tools to see what is on their record and check eligibility for clearance, and over 5,000 cases have been cleared through its services, according to the company. ImpactAlpha put the number of cases expunged by Rasa's lawyers since 2022 at 5,000.
Rasa started in Utah and now operates in Utah, Arizona and Pennsylvania. The launch in Pennsylvania, with an initial focus on Pittsburgh, helped attract investment from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the press release said. The company also reported partnerships with NBA teams for community record-clearance clinics and work with employers such as Flagger Force on fair-chance hiring.
What the money is for
The funding will let Rasa expand its leadership team, accelerate product development and scale its affordable record sealing and expungement services across the US. ImpactAlpha reported that the company will start with Arizona and Pennsylvania as it scales.
Amy Nelson, a partner at Rethink Education, said Rasa sits at the intersection of education, workforce access and justice, and that combining technology with legal expertise is building scalable infrastructure that removes barriers to education, employment and opportunity.
Jesse Draper, founding partner of Halogen Ventures, said roughly thirty percent of Americans have a criminal record. The press release says about one in three Americans have one, and ImpactAlpha said more than one-third of working-age adults do; the figures differ by source.
The founder's view
Sudbury said the raise is a key milestone for the company and that she is excited to see how new strategic partners and dollars will help it scale its impact. The sources reviewed did not report Rasa's headcount, revenue or any earlier funding amounts.