LearnLaunch Accelerator 2020 Impact Report
Since 2013, we have taken great pride in the diversity of the EdTech founders we work with who are making significant progress in impacting learners of all ages, experiences, and backgrounds from around the world. With 47.9% of our investments in companies founded by people who identify as women and 33.8% to people who identify as underrepresented founders (we quantify underrepresented by race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender expression) our portfolio companies are doing groundbreaking, life-changing work for nearly every segment of the population. To that point, as of the end of 2020, our companies had reached and served over 17.5 million learners globally and we have seen this number continue to grow at an impressive rate.
In 2019, LearnLaunch Accelerator Fund II received an investment from the ECMC Foundation. As part of that investment, our team has focused on building the fund’s impact reporting capabilities. With this change, we can better evaluate and articulate the substantial impact that our entrepreneurs create.
We’ve also doubled down on our triple bottom line investment thesis and focus on — 1) cultivating diversity in entrepreneurship 2) building stronger products that reach a broader audience and 3) creating economic opportunity for all involved. As one of the oldest players in this space, we’re thrilled to see the growing marketplace of funders following this philosophy and are excited by the prospect of more followers joining to progress this work in the coming years.
We believe the industry needs a new, more representative cadre of entrepreneurs to build sustainable solutions and drive critical changes in education at every level, for every learner, everywhere. At the LearnLaunch Accelerator, we continue to empower and connect unique entrepreneurs to build accessible and effective educational solutions that achieve better, lasting outcomes.
Read on to learn more about the insights gathered as a result of this work.
Our Portfolio at a Glance
Since 2013, we have invested in 71 companies that collectively employ over 600 people internationally. Our 51 active US portfolio companies are distributed across 15 states in the nation, with the highest concentration in Massachusetts. Outside of the US, there are 11 portfolio companies across 9 countries including, Israel, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Australia, France, Brazil, Canada, and Latvia.
Our companies have served a population of over 17,550,000 learners. Currently, K-12 learners lead this constituency of learners served, followed by adult learners, with the college student segment not far behind.
Founder Demographics
At LearnLaunch we are proud to report the diverse demographic makeup of the companies we serve and strive to continually increase diverse representation. Among our 71 portfolio companies, we were almost equally partnered with male and female entrepreneurs with 34 companies co-founded or co-lead by women (47.9%) and 37 co-founded or co-lead by men (52.1%).
The ethnic and racial demographics of the founders show 24 portfolio companies co-founded or co-lead by underrepresented founders. Of these, 9.9% were Black or African-American, 16.9% were Asian, and 7% were Latinx. There are 47 portfolio companies with White co-founders or co-leaders, making up 66.2% of the total portfolio.
Allocation of Funds
The distribution of funds based on the gender of the founders shows companies with female founders obtained 51.3% of the total funding and companies with male founders obtained 48.7% of total funding.
Finally, the distribution of funds based on the race and ethnicity of the founders demonstrates that companies with White founders received 65.5% of total funding, followed by companies with Asian founders receiving 14.6% of total funding. Companies with Blacks or African American founders received 10.2% of total funding, while companies with Latinx founders received 9.7% of total funding.
LearnLaunch Accelerator is proud to report that our allocations of funds match our portfolio demographic, giving our male and female founders equal opportunities. We are committed to creating unbiased and nondiscriminatory experiences for our portfolio companies.
We work with founders to find follow-on funding, reaching more learners, and supporting change in learning environments. Founders in our portfolio have raised more than $150M in additional funding from nearly all of the significant edtech and education investors and impact funders.
Select Case Studies
LearnLaunch Accelerator made big strides in assisting our portfolio companies to identify relevant metrics and systematically collect impact data. Together, we are consistently creating new visions based on what initiatives are having the greatest measurable impact. Here’s a look at how some of our portfolio companies are measuring the ways they are changing the education landscape. Each has an innovative approach to improving learning and education and have found unique paths to growth and reach their customers.
InScribe and ProPrep are Making a World of Difference for Student Success
InScribe leverages the power of connection to community and artificial intelligence and reports an 8.5% increase in completion rates for first year students at ASU. InScribe will further explore year-to-year retention rates particularly in the subpopulations of Pell eligible students and students of color.
ProPrep provides a platform with STEM-focused video tutorials. Across the UK and US 10K college students are being served. In Israel, 500,000 local STEM students were served by ProPrep’s affiliated company. Based on this Israeli model, ProPrep projects a persistence rate of 65% for those students who have used the video tutorial platform with similar expected results in the US and UK.
Care Academy Trains for Economic Mobility
Care Academy, the training platform for home care professionals, made strides in 2020. They trained up to 1,000 individuals for free, providing opportunities to unemployed populations. They continue their commitment to economic mobility through their Future of Work is Home Care Program, as they plan to reskill 1 million new workers by 2023.
Peerceptiv and Mindsets Broadcast Visible Improvement in Students’ Specific Skills
Peerceptiv provides students with valid and reliable feedback through the peer assessment platform with the goal of developing 21st century skills. When students were surveyed about their experiences, 87% reported specific skills were advanced, 66% reported collaboration skills in particular were improved after the first assignment and 85% reported critical thinking skills essential to the Peerceptiv process.
Mindsets boost math skills through real world problem solving challenges. Looking at the Parlier Unified School District, these improved skills lead to overall better performance in the classroom. After using Mindsets in 2020, 10x more students “Exceeded the Standards”, while 5x more students “Met the Standards” and there was a 50% decrease in those who did “Not Meet the Standards”.
Riff Analytics Assesses Human Interactions, Student Collaboration, Engagement
Riff Analytics works with WGULabs to continue research around the efficacy of collaborative platforms to ultimately measure its impact on student engagement. With the goal of successful online engagement, it is essential to point out that the Riff Platform is instrumental in encouraging psychological safety among online groups.
Riipen Reports Advancement in Work-Integrated Learning Experiences
Riipen is the world’s largest marketplace of work-integrated learning experiences and announces 12,000 new work-integrated learning experiences across Canada in 2020. Their main focus was on providing these experiences for under-represented students at small to medium-sized businesses.
About LearnLaunch Accelerator
LearnLaunch Accelerator is the leading edtech startup program. We run investment-focused programs as well as personalized bootcamps for edtech companies across k-12, higher ed, and workforce. Using our unique mix of milestone-based funding, 1x1 venture partner and mentor support, we work with impact-driven entrepreneurs on achieving product-market fit and developing scaling strategies. Our relationship-driven approach supports funding, partnerships, and growth for the long-term. Learn more here.
LearnLaunch Accelerator is licensee of LearnLaunch, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to catalyzing innovation in the education sector. Read on
You can also learn more about Edinno, our new learning community for early stage edtech innovators HERE.
Special thanks to our summer intern Meredith Lane for helping produce this impact report.
