Achieve Partners today announced the launch of a new $167 million fund focused on helping K-12 schools and universities evolve their approach to technology and improve learning outcomes for students. Widely recognized as one of the country’s most forward-thinking education and workforce investment firms, Achieve is investing in software and tech-enabled services companies across the education spectrum – from K-12 through higher education and workforce development – at a time when technology is playing an increasingly prominent role in learning, credentialing, and skill development. Core to its impact strategy, Achieve expects to demonstrate and quantify the impact of its portfolio companies through third-party academic research.
“Schools and colleges recognize it’s essential to prepare for a future that is defined by technology,” said Brooks Harrington, Partner – Head of North American Private Equity for Federated Hermes and an Achieve LP. “Achieve’s investment thesis recognizes that in an increasingly digital world, it’s critical for education providers to invest in digital transformation — and, more specifically, in the tools that help them both operate better and deliver better outcomes for students.”
Over the past decade, edtech companies that sell to schools have grown quickly and the pandemic has only increased the reliance on digital solutions. Experts expect schools to increasingly integrate emerging tools like AI and virtual reality into the learning experience itself to drive learning outcomes for K-12 schools and colleges to enable efficiencies and support greater scale.
Designed to both anticipate and accelerate this digital shift, Achieve’s new fund has already completed its first three investments: Boclips, which provides access to high-quality video content from partners like BBC and TED to education companies; MasteryPrep, whose coaching solution has helped more than 400,000 students improve their performance on state college readiness exams; and Elentra, creator of the first comprehensive software platform for healthcare education, already in use at more than 40 medical schools.
“The most effective education technology solutions are often those that don’t get as much fanfare. While they may not be flashy, tools that enable access to better instructional content, or allow schools to manage the learning experience in complex fields like healthcare, play a foundational role in improving outcomes for students,” said Achieve managing director Troy Williams. “This is about investing in the fast-growing platforms that will power the shift to a more digitally enabled education landscape, one with the potential to better meet the needs of learners at every stage of their educational journey.”
About Achieve Partners
Achieve Partners is engineering the future of learning and earning by investing in cutting edge technologies and novel business models to bolster skill development and secure the future of work for millions of Americans. By harnessing digital transformation to build new models for learning and new pathways to good jobs, Achieve is helping to level the playing field, improve socioeconomic mobility, and rekindle the American Dream.
www.achievepartners.com
