TALENT DEVELOPMENT
PRnewswire | May 02, 2023
Today, Stemuli—a gaming company at the intersection of AI, education, and workforce development—announced the merger of Infinity.careers and Oppti into Stemuli, with all companies focused on providing career navigation tools to empower students with the skills needed to thrive in the 21st century economy.
Stemuli, led by Taylor Shead, Founder & CEO, is a Black and woman-owned company with a mission to provide a pathway to an intellectually and economically fulfilling career for all. Naomi Thomas, Founder of infinity.careers, will take on the role of Head of Digital for Stemuli, while Khiry Kemp, Co-founder of Oppti, will serve as Head of Operations. The company announced the merger was made possible because the three founders met in Jobs for the Future's (JFF) Entrepreneur in Residence incubator, led by JFFLabs, JFF's innovation lab, which brings together talented and driven entrepreneurs to collaborate and solve real-world problems.
"Stemuli is a shining example of what can happen when we bring together and incubate talented and driven entrepreneurs to collaborate and catalyze new ways to support people facing systemic barriers to advancement," said Kristina Francis, executive director of JFFLabs, JFF's innovation lab. "We are thrilled to see the success of our program in action, and we look forward to seeing the impact this merger will have on the future of learning."
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, access to capital is a major barrier for black entrepreneurs. Despite making up over 13% of the US population, Black-owned businesses only receive less than 1% of venture capital. The merger of Infinity.careers and Oppti into Stemuli highlights the power of Black founders coming together in a way that hasn't been done before, and demonstrates their commitment to creating new opportunities in the edtech space.
"This merger marks an important milestone for both black entrepreneurs and the edtech industry as a whole," said Taylor Shead, Founder and CEO of Stemuli. "We are excited to join forces and bring our collective expertise to create a company that truly empowers students and addresses the needs of the education system. We believe that education is the key to unlocking opportunities and driving social and economic mobility, and we are committed to making that a reality for students across the country."
About Stemuli:
Stemuli is a Black and woman-owned gaming company at the intersection of AI, education, and workforce development.Stemuli is a Black and woman-owned gaming company at the intersection of AI, education, and workforce development. Stemuli connects students to meaningful career development experiences and maintains a portfolio of students’ every achievement, certification, and development milestones to help them showcase the to the marketplace and land the job of their dreams.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
PRnewswire | March 29, 2023
Anthology, a leading provider of education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, and Navengage, an education technology pioneer in student engagement mobile technology, today announced a new partnership that will bring Anthology Engage, a dynamic student community engagement platform, together with Navengage's versatile student engagement mobile app.
The integrated solution will enable students to tap Anthology's time-tested student engagement platform from any device, innovating upon an already market-leading solution with even more flexibility. The application amplifies the impact of student affairs, gathers quality data institutions need to demonstrate the impact of student engagement on student success, and empowers staff to spend their time where it is most valuable – with students.
"We're excited to work with Navengage to deploy Anthology Engage's best-in-class engagement management platform in an effective, mobile-first experience that students expect," said Chris Husser, Vice President of Product Management at Anthology. "This is another significant step along our journey to deliver personalized experiences that drive student and institutional success across the student lifecycle."
"Through this partnership, we look forward to providing higher ed institutions with the best of both worlds – a combination of Anthology's expertise in compliance, reporting, and student services with Navengage's mobile accessibility and cutting-edge user experience," said Andrew Strause, Co-Founder and CEO of Navengage. "Together, our platforms can transform the student experience and further our commitment to helping students succeed outside of the classroom, especially those at risk of dropping out."
Through the native integration, campus leaders can meet students where they are – on their mobile devices. Key features of the integrated solution include:
• Easy-to-use tools to efficiently and effectively encourage student engagement through mobile access to events, organizations, academics, career preparation, student research, and studying abroad
• A complete picture of students' co-curricular involvement with more comprehensive student activity analytics to make data-informed decisions
• A personalized, accessible user experience with a modern user interface and campus branding
• The ability to integrate student goal setting with expanded access to opportunities and communities that are important to each student • A centralized location for student and academic affairs to unite around their common goal - the success of the student
"Educators have long sought to work across institutional silos and deliver a more holistic student experience," continued Strause. "Students similarly crave a personal and well-rounded experience. The Anthology and Navengage partnership will bring those experiences to fruition by providing institutions with robust engagement data across campus while also serving as the epicenter for students' engagement."
About Anthology
Anthology offers the largest EdTech ecosystem on a global scale for education, supporting more than 150 million users in 80 countries. With a mission to provide dynamic, data-informed experiences to the global education community through Anthology Intelligent Experiences™, we help learners, leaders and educators achieve their goals by offering over 60 SaaS products and services designed to advance learning.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | June 02, 2023
Swing Education, an online marketplace that connects schools and substitute teachers, announced today $38 million in Series C funding. The funding round was led by funds advised by Apax Partners LLP (“Apax”), a leading global private equity advisory firm, and by edtech investment firm Reach Capital. The funding enables Swing Education to invest in its growth and better address the nation-wide substitute teacher shortage.
This financing follows a 2018 Series B funding co-led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Owl Ventures and a seed round from a consortium that included Social Capital, Kapor Capital, Moment Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Red House Education, and Edovate Capital.
Swing believes that every classroom deserves a teacher, and every student deserves to learn without disruption. Since its founding in 2015, Swing has worked to improve the experience of being a substitute teacher and made it easier for K-12 schools to grow and manage their substitute teacher pools. Swing currently works with over 2,800 school partners and in the 2022-23 school year has supported these schools in filling over one million instructional hours with substitute teachers.
Teacher vacancies are an ever-present challenge for school administrators, with 45% of public schools operating without a full teaching staff at the start of the 2022-2023 school year. While school leaders recognize the need for substitute teachers, improving processes around substitute teaching and investing in programs and tools that support substitute well-being often go unprioritized. Swing aims to fill this gap. By combining dedicated success teams and a comprehensive technology platform, Swing works to ensure that substitutes are treated better, which, in turn, attracts more individuals to the profession.
“We’re thrilled to have Apax Partners and Reach Capital as strategic investors,” said Mike Teng, CEO of Swing Education. “The need for substitute teachers is acute. This additional funding highlights the current strain on our schools and positions Swing to grow our impact, placing even more substitute teachers in even more classrooms.”
“Swing Education is a truly impactful business, bringing much needed digitalization to the substitute teacher staffing marketplace and making it easier and more efficient to match talent with schools,” said David Su, Partner, Apax Global Impact. “We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Mike and the broader team to help grow the business and execute on our joint vision for the company.”
“Beyond broadening and diversifying staffing pools, Swing’s distinct marketplace model provides upskilling opportunities and unlocks innovative pathways to the teaching profession,” said Steve Kupfer, Venture Partner at Reach Capital. “Each of these goals aligns with our mission as education investors. We are thrilled to support the Swing team through this next stage of growth.”
"Even prior to the pandemic's amplification, the teacher shortage in the United States profoundly impacted the K-12 education system. Under the visionary leadership of Mike and Asha, Swing Education has built a transformative way for K-12 schools and substitute teachers to connect,” said Amit A. Patel, Managing Director at Owl Ventures. “Their technology platform has harnessed the power of data to enable a seamless match between teacher absences and qualified substitutes as well as ensure uninterrupted student learning."
Swing currently operates in California, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. and will use this latest funding round to grow its substitutes and school partners in these regions. Swing will look to expand to new regions in 2024.
About Swing Education
Swing Education is an online staffing marketplace that connects substitute teachers with schools. Founded in 2015 by former K-12 educators and administrators, Swing makes it easier for schools and districts to find reliable, qualified substitute teachers when they need them most. With over 300,000 absence days filled to date, Swing is dedicated to improving the experience of finding substitute teachers, becoming a sub, and keeping student learning on track. Swing serves over 2,800 partner schools across California, Arizona, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, New York, and Washington D.C.
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