Participated · Seed · Nov 2019

Verto Education runs semester study-abroad programs for first-year students, sending participants to Central America, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia and offering on-campus programs in Ireland, England and New Zealand. Founded in 2017 and based in Berkeley, Calif., the company operates like a college with its own admissions staff and guarantees accepted students placement at at least one of its 28 partner schools. Programs cover subjects such as environmental science, public health, business and finance and cost between $10,000 and $20,500 per semester (airfare and some costs excluded); programs require a nonrefundable $500 deposit and students may use financial aid and scholarships. CEO and co-founder Mitch Gordon said the new financing will be used to hire more employees and expand to eight program offerings next fall. The company plans on-campus programming in Italy and Spain in 2020 and hopes to start a program in Africa by 2021.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2019

Mentor Collective builds a mentorship platform that pairs students with trained mentors using algorithmic matching and participant surveys. It provides structured curricula tailored to groups such as first-generation students, adult learners, veterans, and BIPOC students and supports virtual mentoring. Founded in 2014 and based in Boston, the company serves 165 institutional higher-education customers and has trained more than 50,000 mentors. Mentor Collective facilitated 83,000 mentorships in 2021 and doubled revenue last year, now nearing $10 million in annual recurring revenue. Internal analysis attributed a 3.84% increase in student retention and a 14% increase in sense of belonging to its programs. With new venture capital, the company faces strategic choices about scaling and whether to begin paying the volunteer mentors who currently supply much of its network. Mentor Collective is a Boston, MA-based technology platform that powers mentorship programs for colleges and universities by activating intentional relationships among students, alumni, and employer communities. The company partners with over 60 educational institutions, including Princeton University, Penn State, UC Davis, Indiana University, WashU, and San Francisco State University. To date it has created over 30,000 mentoring relationships. Mentor Collective was co-founded by Jackson Boyar (CEO) and James Lu Morrissey (COO). The company raised $3M in funding and intends to use the proceeds to expand its business reach. It aims to create 100,000 mentorships by the end of 2020.