EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Flywire | July 14, 2022
Today, Flywire Corporation , a global payments enablement and software company, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Cohort Go, an international education payments provider that brings additional students, agents and essential student services to Flywire. The acquisition will build on Flywire’s existing education business to accelerate the growth of its agent focus and team, deepen its commitment to product and payment innovation, and further invest in Asia-Pacific (APAC), a key geographic focus for Flywire.
Cohort Go’s core focus is on providing international students with the ability to make cross-border tuition payments through international agents. Cohort Go’s agent platform is expected to bolster Flywire’s existing agent solutions to deliver even greater value to educational institutions, agents, and students. Additionally, with partner relationships in almost 40 geographies, Cohort Go’s global footprint and penetration in APAC and Latin America also present new growth and expansion opportunities for Flywire.
“Recruiting agencies play a critical role in the international student journey by assisting students in finding placements in higher educational and other institutions. “Cohort Go has been prominent in this space, with a network of over 1,000 agent partnerships, including some of the most prestigious student recruitment agencies in the world.”
Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire
Massaro continued: “As we continue to invest in our Flywire Advantage – the combination of our next-gen payments platform, proprietary global payment network and industry-specific software – we seek opportunities to embed deeper into the workflows of our clients, agents and payers, with the goal of driving more value for them. Cohort Go’s successful agent platform, global footprint and adjacent services complement our existing capabilities and will help us power the higher education ecosystem into the future.”
Growth in international student recruitment indicates strong secular trend
Recent research suggests that the international education industry is poised for significant growth. According to new data from the market intelligence firm HolonIQ, 8 million international students will be enrolled with foreign higher education institutions by 2030 – 3 million more than were abroad in 2019 – and that their total spending will amount to more than double what it was before the pandemic.
As the demand for higher education accelerates, education agents are expected to play a critical role in international recruitment. Estimates from the international education consultancy, ICEF, suggest that more than 1 million students are placed through agents around the world, and rising. According to a 2021 report from the American International Recruitment Council and the National Association for College Admission Counseling, nearly half (49%) of U.S. colleges who responded were partnered with education agents, which is up from 36% of U.S. in 2017-2018. Agent growth is also on the rise in other popular higher education destination markets like Canada, whose international student population has grown sixfold over the past two decades.
Cohort Go was founded in 2012 by industry experts Mark Fletcher and Paul Jones, who combined their respective expertise in banking and commercial software to enable students to pay for their international education using their local currency, saving on fees and transfer rates. Grounded in their aligned vision to deliver value to the broader education ecosystems, the founders continually sought ways to work with education agents, institutions and students alike, and evolved their single solution into an online platform that offers a tailored experience, with capabilities to reduce costs, increase choice and improve productivity.
Today, Cohort Go partners with more than 1,000 agents globally. Students from more than 180 countries have leveraged Cohort Go, which services more than 60 currencies with local specialists all over the world. The integration of Cohort Go into Flywire’s existing agent platform will enable Flywire to provide even more value to agents, payers, and educational institutions.
Combination of software and payments powers future vertical ecosystems
Cohort Go’s strong regional focus in APAC, global agent relationships, and its existing payment infrastructure will help Flywire bolster its global payment network. Cohort Go’s relationships with payment partners all over the world will add to Flywire’s network of partners, further supporting Flywire’s clients and payers across all vertical industries.
Additionally, the acquisition of Cohort Go also enhances Flywire’s ability to accelerate Flywire’s roadmap to enable a broader suite of financial services targeted to international students and other payers. Already, Cohort Go is improving the way students pay for and save on health insurance, which augments Flywire’s focus on adding more value through its payer services.
“Working with our clients on delivering high-stakes, high-value tuition payments, we’ve continued to discover pain points in the education ecosystem that we believe we’re uniquely positioned to solve,” Massaro continued. “Cohort Go gives us an opportunity to accelerate the investment we have been making to further extend our value proposition to international students. With our Flywire Advantage, we can apply our existing framework of using software to drive value in payments to solve very specific use cases.”
Complements strong organic growth
The acquisition of Cohort Go is a continuation of Flywire’s long-term plan to supplement its strong organic growth and continually expand across all business lines. The acquisition is expected to be modestly accretive to revenue and Adjusted EBITDA. More details will be shared on the upcoming earnings call scheduled for August 9, 2022.
About Flywire
Flywire is a global payments enablement and software company. We combine our proprietary global payments network, next-gen payments platform and vertical-specific software to deliver the most important and complex payments for our clients and their customers.
Flywire leverages its vertical-specific software and payments technology to deeply embed within the existing A/R workflows for its clients across the education, healthcare and travel vertical markets, as well as in key B2B industries. Flywire also integrates with leading ERP systems, such as NetSuite, so organizations can optimize the payment experience for their customers while eliminating operational challenges.
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CORPORATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Ethena | August 04, 2022
Ethena, a modern compliance training platform, announced the launch of its Code of Conduct training. The course transforms the Code of Conduct training that public companies are required to do from a “check-the-box” activity, into training that speaks to each company’s values and shares expectations of what it means to be acting ethically and inclusively.
“A company’s Code of Conduct shares the principles and standards that everyone at the company needs to follow – that’s a really important vision to articulate, especially to new hires, Despite its importance, historically, most organizations have struggled to develop training that keeps company values and standards top of mind throughout the year. Usually, it ends up being generic training and check-the-box attestation. We saw companies hungry for something better but also scalable in the era of distributed teams. That’s why Ethena developed our Code of Conduct training to help build ethical and inclusive companies.”
-Roxanne Petraeus, Ethena CEO and co-founder
In the United States, all public companies are legally required to have a Code of Conduct, a mandate that began with the establishment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. Codes of Conduct have become the standard for building ethical workplaces–so much so that even private companies and growing startups develop their own internal Codes.
A Code of Conduct typically encapsulates mission, core values, and culture statements combined with critical rules and regulations–all of which make for a complex, lengthy document. The density of most Codes has made it difficult for compliance professionals to implement effective training, and even harder for employees to retain that content. It is not uncommon for new hires to read the Code during the onboarding process, sign an attestation saying they will follow the rules stated within the document, and then never hear about the Code again.
From public companies to up-and-coming startups, many organizations want to communicate and re-educate employees about the Code over the course of the year, but that has become increasingly difficult with the amount of required training employees receive. As a result, aspects of Code training either get added onto other training initiatives, or just get passed over due to tight budgets and training fatigue.
Ethena’s fully configurable, off-the-shelf Code of Conduct training makes it easier for compliance officers, Legal and HR teams, and managers to educate employees about the Code consistently while not asking for too much employee time. Companies like Zoom have already deployed Ethena’s training to provide continual opportunities for their employees to learn about the Code of Conduct.
Ethena provides the only Code training that is designed in digestible bits of training, which can be delivered at the Moments that Matter. For example, a company can deliver its “Gifts and Entertainment” training right before the holiday season for maximum learning and retention.
In today’s constantly evolving business landscape, continuous learning in all aspects of an organization is essential, At Zoom, we extend our passion for continuous learning to our Code of Conduct to help foster value- and purpose-oriented teams, just as our product teams leverage their learnings to create the next-generation of product and business innovation,said Lynn Haaland, Zoom’s Chief Compliance, Ethics, and Privacy Officer.
ABOUT ETHENA
Ethena is a modern compliance training platform that provides innovative, effective training for companies. Instead of just checking a box, Ethena training builds ethical and inclusive company cultures while providing admins with a seamless software experience to navigate the increasingly-complex web of compliance training requirements. Ethena was founded by Roxanne Petraeus and Anne Solmssen, who drew upon their diverse backgrounds in the U.S. Army, consulting and startups to reinvent the stuffy world of corporate training. Ethena was named one of the most promising enterprise startups in 2021 by Insider.
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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
California Virtual Academies | September 06, 2022
The California Virtual Academies (CAVA) chapter of the National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) has been named as one of the 2022 recipients of the Silver Star of Excellence Award. This award is presented annually to NTHS chapters who distinguish themselves through their consistent excellence in Career & Technical Education and is a reflection of their commitment to community service, chapter advancement, and active civic involvement. CAVA is a network of online public schools serving K-12 students throughout the state.“I got to experience first-hand how hard our student members worked to maintain the goals and pillars of the NTHS,” said CAVA history teacher and NTHS advisor, Brandi Berba. “I am so proud of them for winning this award especially since it was only our second year! I look forward to seeing what they do next.” During the past school year, CAVA’s NTHS chapter has participated in all 5 of the NTHS pillars – Skill and Scholarship, Citizenship and Service, Honesty and Responsibility, Leadership, and Growth and Development. In the Skill and Scholarship category alone, CAVA invited over 80 students to lead and participate in a Professor Panel at the Fresno State University Lyles College of Engineering. The professors promoted STEM education and engineering and encouraged students to investigate skill-based career paths giving them a direct connection between the technical education that CAVA offers and someone who is interested in a STEM or engineering job. The event also promoted project-based learning as well as getting a higher education degree in college.
“The NTHS is an incredible opportunity for students like me.It encouraged me to reach higher levels of achievement and gave me a chance to form relationships with like-minded and driven students who care about their future.”
CAVA NTHS student president Sadee Briones
About California Virtual Academies
California Virtual Academies are nine independent online public charter schools that use the curriculum and tools provided by K12, a Stride Company (NYSE: LRN). The California Virtual Academies are: CAVA @ Fresno, CAVA @ Kings, CAVA @ Los Angeles, CAVA @ Maricopa, CAVA @ San Diego, CAVA @ San Joaquin, CAVA @ San Mateo, CAVA @ Sonoma and CAVA @ Sutter. Families do not pay tuition for a student to attend an online public school. Common household items and office supplies like printer ink and paper are not provided. Our enrollment consultants can help address your technological and computer questions and needs. Stride offers learners of all ages a more effective way to learn and build skills for their future. For more information about CAVA, visit https://cava.k12.com/.
About the National Technical Honor Society
: NTHS was established in 1984 with the purpose of honoring student achievement and leadership in Career and Technical Education (CTE). Since 1984, NTHS has served over 1 million members. In 2005, the NTHS scholarship fund was launched, awarding over $2 million in scholarships since that time to enhance and enrich the career opportunities of their members. With chapters in both secondary and postsecondary schools across the country, NTHS is the national leader in providing recognition for excellence in CTE. NTHS serves over 100,000 student members annually throughout the U.S. and U.S. territories. The national headquarters is based in Flat Rock, NC.
About the Silver Star of Excellence Award
: The Silver Star of Excellence Award is national award presented to school chapters across the country who apply the seven character attributes of NTHS – Skill, Honesty, Service, Responsibility, Scholarship, Citizenship, and Leadership – to their planned activities, programs, classes, and community outreach. It’s designed to nationally recognize school chapters for their educational excellence and community involvement, and encourages them to promote NTHS values in both their school and their local community.
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