Intuit Ventures Backs Forage to Expand Online SNAP/EBT Access
Intuit Ventures is investing in Forage, a financial infrastructure platform that simplifies online SNAP/EBT payments for merchants and consumers. The Series B round includes participation from Mouro Capital, PayPal Ventures, Nyca Partners, and others. Forage addresses a gap in the market where nearly 38 million Americans across 20 million households receive SNAP/EBT benefits but face barriers to using them online due to complex merchant requirements and legacy infrastructure.
TL;DR
- Intuit Ventures leads investment in Forage Series B alongside PayPal Ventures, Mouro Capital, and six other firms
- 38 million Americans across 20 million households receive SNAP/EBT benefits worth over $100 billion annually, but online acceptance remains limited
- Forage provides a developer-friendly API that abstracts complexity of restricted payments and enables merchants to accept SNAP/EBT online
- Forage launched a free consumer app offering rewards tracking and EBT balance checks as grocery prices expected to rise 3% in 2026
Why It Matters
SNAP/EBT recipients represent a significant population with limited access to online benefit usage. Forage's infrastructure removes technical and regulatory barriers that have kept millions of consumers from using benefits for online grocery purchases, addressing both food security and financial access gaps.
Business Impact
The investment signals confidence in restricted-payment infrastructure as a market opportunity. Forage's API approach and expansion roadmap into HSA and FSA payments suggest a broader platform play in regulated financial services where developer experience and compliance automation create competitive advantage.
Key Implications
- Merchant adoption of online SNAP/EBT could accelerate if Forage's API reduces friction and compliance burden relative to legacy USDA certification processes
- Intuit gains exposure to a SNAP/EBT recipient demographic that overlaps with Credit Karma and TurboTax user bases, creating cross-sell opportunities
- Forage's expansion into HSA and FSA suggests the underlying infrastructure may become a platform for multiple restricted-spend categories, broadening addressable market
What to Watch
Monitor Forage's merchant adoption rates and whether online SNAP/EBT transaction volumes increase materially following this funding. Track whether Forage successfully expands into HSA and FSA payments and how competitors respond to the API-first approach. Watch for any integration announcements between Forage and Intuit's consumer products.
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