Participated · Series A · Sep 2022

Virtual Internships operates an AI-powered matching platform that connects students with internships at over 12,000 host companies across 100 countries and guarantees a match within one month. The platform provides pre- and during-internship training via its CareerBridge employability course, weekly check-ins, group discussions, webinars and coaching calls. The company reports that over 70% of interns work directly with founders or C-suite executives; about 25% are invited to continue with their matched company and 70% secure full-time roles within three months. Revenue grew from $100,000 in fiscal 2019/2020 to $4.1 million in 2021/2022, and the company expects to hit $10 million by 2023, with most revenue coming from university partnerships and also from governments and pathway programs. Founded in 2018 by Daniel Nivern and Edward Holroyd Pearce (who previously launched CRCC Asia), Virtual Internships emphasizes scalability and employability outcomes. Planned product work includes improving its matching process and building a post-internship employability portal to let companies find potential hires from its student and graduate database. Founded three years ago by Daniel Nivern and Edward Holroyd Pearce, Virtual Internships operates a platform that matches students with remote internship placements and manages the end-to-end administration. The company vets employers to ensure placements offer meaningful work and works with universities to select and monitor candidates. Its business model charges universities a fee when their students take internships; employers pay nothing but must demonstrate quality placements. Usage grew from a 100-person pilot to 1,700 during the pandemic and the company was targeting 6,000 internships in the current year. It currently works with 4,000 host companies in 70 countries and more than 100 universities; 36% of interns have received further work or full-time offers after placements. The team aims to scale to work with 1 million students within five years and will use new capital to invest in technology and build teams that liaise with universities and employers.

Participated · Series D · Apr 2021

ExecOnline delivers applied-learning leadership development programs to enterprise clients via a proprietary online platform and partnerships with elite business schools. The company reports participant completion rates above 90%, strong NPS scores, and measurable ROI for clients. Its platform combines on-campus engagement dynamics with scalable online delivery to serve corporate executives. ExecOnline has delivered transformational learning experiences to leaders at over 500 global organizations since 2012. The company plans to invest in sales and marketing, expand its content Experience Library, and enhance its technology platform to accelerate growth. ExecOnline develops and delivers enterprise leadership development programs combining in-person training with online learning, covering strategy, innovation and change, leadership, and operations and finance. Its portfolio includes proprietary offerings and programs run with elite schools such as Berkeley, Columbia, IMD, MIT, Wharton, and Yale. The company has delivered leadership development experiences to more than 250 organizations and 12,000 business leaders, with customers including over 250 corporations, mainly in the Fortune 1000. Founded in 2012 and led by CEO Stephen Bailey, ExecOnline operates from New York City. The company plans to use new funding to further develop proprietary L&D program offerings and to increase sales and marketing efforts. ExecOnline is a NYC-based provider of online leadership development programs that partners with business schools including Berkeley-Haas, Columbia, IMD, MIT-Sloan, Wharton, and Yale. Its university-certified programs cover leadership, strategy, innovation, and operations and combine on-demand video lectures, self-paced application exercises, and live online collaboration with faculty and a global community. Founded in 2012 by CEO Stephen Bailey, the company has delivered leadership development experiences to more than 150 organizations and 7,000 business leaders. ExecOnline intends to use the Series B proceeds to extend sales and marketing capabilities and to grow its suite of enterprise-focused online leadership development offerings. The company works with enterprise clients to tailor dynamic content to corporate objectives and focuses on measurable organizational impact. ExecOnline delivers school-certified online executive education programs in partnership with elite business schools such as MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School and Berkeley‑Haas. Its core product is a proprietary enterprise learning platform featuring on-demand HD video lectures, self-paced application exercises, and live video collaboration with professors and executive peers. The company powers programs that are school-certified and delivered to corporate cohorts. Over 1,000 executives from approximately 70 companies were committed to attending programs with UC Berkeley‑Haas and Columbia, and nearly 400 executives from 35 countries participated in Fall 2014 programs. Led by founder and CEO Stephen Bailey, ExecOnline plans to use new funding to improve offerings, enrich its platform, establish additional business‑school partnerships, expand sales and marketing, and scale operations. ExecOnline offers an end-to-end online executive training platform that partners with top 10 business schools to deliver branded curriculum and interaction with business school professors. The service lets executives complete training from their desks without traveling to campus. It targets Fortune 500 companies that typically send executives to immersive programs at schools like Harvard. Founder Stephen Bailey says the product solves the staffing crunch companies face when executives are away for extended on-campus programs. The startup raised $800,000 in seed funding from The Washington Post and has two companies signed up so far. ExecOnline is slated to go live in January and does not yet have a website; competitors mentioned include degree-focused providers like 2U and platform providers like Moodle.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2018

LearnPlatform provides a research-backed software-as-a-service and rapid cycle evaluation system that enables K-12 and higher education organizations to improve budgets and student outcomes by finding, buying, managing, and analyzing edtech. The platform features simplified contract management, inventory dashboards, procurement support, and configurable workflows to meet educational organizations' needs. Led by co-founder and CEO Karl Rectanus, LearnPlatform was launched in 2015 and is based in Raleigh, NC. More than 2,000 schools, districts, states, universities, and associations have adopted the platform since its launch. The company raised $3.2M in seed funding to enhance its product offerings and expand services to more educational institutions and partners.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2014

panOpen offers a learning platform built exclusively on Open Educational Resources (OER) that lets faculty curate, customize, edit and contribute peer-reviewed content. The platform includes LMS integration and gradebook syncing, self-grading quizzes, note-taking, highlighting, flashcards, real-time chat and actionable analytics. It reported nearly 100 pilot programs at colleges and universities and has developed enhanced interactive "pillar" resources in subjects such as history, chemistry, economics, physics, biology, psychology, business and finance, with additional pillar courses in development. Students are charged a small flat subscription fee per course for perpetual access; panOpen states this typically reduces costs by 75% or more versus conventional textbooks, and content is downloadable, printable and shareable. The company operates a revenue‑sharing model to incentivize authors, faculty adapters and technology partners. panOpen was founded by Brian Jacobs and is a graduate of the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator powered by Techstars. panOpen provides technology and financial services to help higher education institutions adopt open educational resources (OER). Its platform includes institutionally specific OER content libraries, advanced customization and remixing tools, student analytics, universal access to OER, and a financial compensation system to support OER sustainability and align stakeholders' interests. The company was founded in 2013 by Dr. Brian Jacobs, who serves as CEO. panOpen intends to use the new funding to support growth and fund ongoing development of its platform. The company has raised $3M in total. Board and investor involvement is increasing as part of its next-stage development. panOpen operates a platform that provides colleges and universities with universal access to open educational resources (OERs), enabling faculty and students to remix and share materials. The platform is designed to align the economic and operational interests of faculty, administrators, and students to facilitate institution-wide OER adoption. Formed in April 2013 and led by CEO Dr. Brian Jacobs, panOpen has launched over 40 pilots with colleges and universities nationwide. The company was selected to join the inaugural class of the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator powered by Techstars. Financially, panOpen has raised $750,000 to date, including an additional $500,000 from its second seed round.