Education Innovation Ventures

During a challenging year for venture capital, Education Innovation Ventures (EIV) balanced support for existing portfolio companies with new investments, doubling down on our commitment to put capital to work in 2023. For more than five years, EIV has delivered catalytic capital in the form of program-related investments to early-stage ventures that improve postsecondary persistence and completion for students from underserved backgrounds through technology-enabled solutions. EIV continues to seek innovations and opportunities led by founders with proximate experience to the communities they serve, such as founders of color and women who have historically received and continue to receive a minuscule percentage of the hundreds of billions of dollars of available U.S. venture capital every year. 

ECMC Foundation’s evolution over the last year has energized the EIV team with its renewed commitment to program-related investments, which have proven to be a key tool for seeding and supporting equity-driven solutions that align with the Foundation’s strategic priorities. EIV invested nearly $3.9 million across eight pre-seed and seed-stage ventures, one nonprofit and two funds working on removing financial barriers for students, improving college transfer success and developing work-based learning solutions that can scale. EIV also participated in key field-building programs and conferences throughout 2023, connecting with portfolio company founders and peers at the ASU+GSV Summit, the LatinX EdTech Summit, the OnRamp Education and Workforce Innovation Conference, StartEd’s EDTECH WEEK and SOCAP.