New Investment Opportunity: EduNav
Improving graduation rates in higher education
- Fast-growing planning and optimization software to cut soaring ~40% dropout rate in higher education
- More than 18 colleges/universities, including FIU, UC Riverside, Texas A&M with 365K students, successfully integrating platform, improving overall public funding
- Dramatic revenue growth despite Covid challenges: EOY 2021 ARR up 73% from EOY 2020, projecting 100%+ increase in 2022
- Headwinds in higher education from pandemic create opportunity to invest below 2019 valuation despite strong revenue growth
- $4M round with participation of Learn Capital and Opus Capital
Dear Josb,
Forty percent of all students who start college studies drop out, wasting $200B of educational resources every year. This high dropout rate is bad for the students, bad for the institutions, and bad for society.
OurCrowd is reinvesting in EduNav, a Silicon Valley-based company that provides AI-driven planning and optimization tools that help colleges and universities substantially reduce high dropout rates. The details in this email are based on information received from, and verified solely by, the company.
The Problem
There are many reasons for the high college dropout rate. Some are within the control of students and institutions. One major factor is that students are often overwhelmed by the hundreds or even thousands of course combinations provided by traditional academic planning and registration systems. Students often end up taking classes they do not need and never finish their course.
The Solution
EduNav's SmartPlan software uses big data, combinatorial algorithms, and machine learning to create optimal education plans with the shortest path to graduation, personalized for each student.
One community college that has struggled with very low completion rates more than doubled graduation figures from 14% to 31% using EduNav's software. Other customers report dramatic increases in student persistence, average credits per term, advisor planning efficiency, and reductions in wasted credits and shorter times to graduation.
The Market
Thirty-five states across the US have implemented performance-based funding for educational institutions receiving state funding. Publicly funded institutions in these states can lose substantial funding if performance requirements are not met. Graduation rate is the single most cited factor. State institutions, therefore, have a particularly high financial incentive to do all they can to improve graduation rates. EduNav's software is one of the few tools available for this purpose.
Institutions with higher-than-average minority populations suffer disproportionately from low completion rates. The six-year graduation rate for four-year historically Black colleges and universities is only 35%. EduNav is working with two foundations that are providing funding and assistance to bring EduNav's software to these institutions.
The Customers
More than 18 colleges and universities, including Florida International University, the University of California-Riverside, and Texas A&M, together serving 365,000 students, have successfully integrated EduNav's platform, and are enjoying improving overall public funding.
Revenue Growth
EduNav has seen dramatic revenue growth despite Covid challenges: EOY 2021 ARR increased 73% from EOY 2020. The company projects 100%+ growth in 2022.
The Round
Pandemic-induced headwinds in higher education have created an opportunity to invest below EduNav's 2019 valuation despite the company's strong growth.
This $4M Series A-2 round includes participation from Learn Capital, a venture platform focused on educational technology, and Opus Capital, a venture fund with more than $1B under management.
Proceeds from this round will be used to scale sales and marketing, and for continued R&D investments to support new products.
Meet the CEO
We're hosting a webinar/conference call on Wednesday, February 16th, at 7PM Israel / 12PM New York / 9AM San Francisco for investors to meet CEO Andrew Brown and learn more about EduNav.
Can't make the webinar? Register and we will send you a recording of the call.
The EduNav Solution
EduNav currently offers three SaaS products.
- SmartPlan: EduNav SmartPlan is the only academic planning solution to automatically create optimal education plans, personalized for each student. EduNav's platform integrates data from multiple systems with input from students, faculty, advisors, and administration.
- Insights: EduNav Insights develops analytics and insights to inform decision making around resource-decisions and helps institutions answer fundamental planning questions.
- Summit: EduNav Summit provides automated degree and credential completion analysis for every student across all degrees and credentials. It is the only solution able to track and manage all students against all credentials and degrees.
Next steps:
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