MODULE 2 IMPACT
ACCELERATING IMPACT
Introduction
Our Impact Thesis
As we continue to evolve our impact strategy at the Education Impact Fund (EIF), we’re proud to showcase how our portfolio companies are driving meaningful outcomes—and how we help accelerate their impact. In our first module of the 2024 Impact Report, we introduced the business case for impact— our thesis that companies delivering strong learner outcomes can drive customer satisfaction, business growth and ultimately, investor returns. If you haven’t yet read it, we encourage you to explore
Module 1: The Business Case for Impact.
This second module, Accelerating Impact, brings that thesis to life. We showcase the outcomes our portfolio companies are driving and the tangible ways we partner to fuel those results. This includes supporting our portfolio companies to identify, measure and communicate the Metrics That Matter—the impact outcomes that customers care most about and that drive renewal, expansion and long-term success.
Our approach to impact begins during diligence, where we assess a company’s impact vision, the centrality of impact to its business model, and its existing evidence of impact across our three-factor framework: reach, efficacy and scalability. But our work doesn’t stop at investment. In addition to annual ongoing impact measurement and evaluation, our Impact Acceleration platform provides hands-on support to help companies build the systems, strategies and storytelling needed to deliver and demonstrate impact outcomes into top-line growth. Our team works on projects collecting the right data, validating outcomes with customers, and updating the product roadmap to reflect customer needs and drive deeper impact. We are deeply engaged in helping our companies create a flywheel between impact and business performance.
This module includes stories and outcomes from across our portfolio— highlighting companies at different stages of the Metrics That Matter cycle. Some are just beginning to validate key outcomes with customers. Others are leveraging impact data to drive scale. All are working to deliver solutions that improve the lives of students, educators, families and workers across the country.
We’re proud to share their progress—and we’re candid about the work still ahead. These stories reflect not only the promise of our thesis but also the power of partnership in making it real.
–The EIF Team
1
An Outcomes-Driven Approach to Investing
Our capital deployment strategy is directly aligned with our impact thesis. We partner with companies across four key themes that drive measurable outcomes aligned with institutional and employer priorities.
Outcomes
• Access to Quality Programs
• Affordability
• Matriculation Rates Unlocking Equitable Pathways
Portfolio
Fueling Career Success Revolutionizing Skill Development
• Placement Rates
• Promotion Rates
• Wage Uplift
• Credentials of Value
• Measurable Skill Gains
• Program ROI
Unlocking Equitable Pathways
• Graduation Rates
• Time to Completion Removing Barriers to Completion
• Student Persistence
Our Impact Framework
Our impact evaluation begins during diligence, where we identify each impact thesis, the problem it addresses and its unique solution, while ensuring the centrality of impact to the company’s business model. Using a framework focused on reach, efficacy and scalability, we evaluate current impact and identify opportunities to strengthen its business case for impact. Post investment, our Impact Acceleration team conducts annual reassessments and collaborates on support projects to help each company expand its impact and grow revenue.
Reach
The size of the impact opportunity and the company’s current and potential impact on underrepresented or marginalized populations
Impact Metrics
User and customer growth, addressable market of learners/workers, sales pipeline and GTM metrics
Efficacy
The research and data points that validate the company’s ability to deliver long-term outcomes aligned with its impact vision
Impact Metrics
User engagement and retention over time, NPS, outcomes data and case studies
Scalability
The company’s ability to deliver economically sustainable business growth while maintaining or improving its impact outcomes over time
Impact Metrics
Capital efficiency metrics (e.g. margins, unit economics, burn multiple) assessed within the context of reach and efficacy outcomes over the same period
Metrics That Matter Build Trust
EdTech plays an increasingly important role in postsecondary education and workforce, but its return on investment often depends on a multitude of factors: adoption by administrators, faculty, and other student-facing leaders, proper implementation by technology providers, and engagement and usage by learners. To deliver on this, companies must build trust by providing value and results that these stakeholders care about. This idea is the foundation of our Metrics That Matter approach. Recent studies show the most effective way to build trust with higher education stakeholders is by demonstrating successful implementation and reporting how technology improves outcomes. Trust accelerates decisions, leading to faster and more widespread adoption—all built on understanding the Metrics That Matter.1
How We Partner: Our Impact Acceleration Platform
Investing in innovative, impact-oriented solutions is only the beginning. Our fund is committed to being a strategic partner, helping portfolio companies strengthen their business case for impact. Reaching the Metrics That Matter is a nuanced process that varies across companies. Our impact team and platform provide dedicated resources, structure and strategic guidance to support high-value projects that drive both impact and growth.
The next few pages highlight active projects across our portfolio.
Company Profile: Kyron Learning
Rajen Sheth CEO
Approach
Vision
Kyron is leveraging AI to scale the transformative power of great teachers. Stage Series
Kyron is using AI to bring true 1:1, interactive instruction to higher ed—helping more learners access high-quality, personalized education.
Why We Invested
We invested because Kyron stands out from typical chatbot tools. By giving educators the power to create dynamic, AI-driven video lessons, Kyron makes learning engaging, conversational and scalable.
Removing Barriers to Completion
Scaling Successful Community College Pilot
Context
Kyron has launched with a leading public community college partner in the spring semester, with course expansion planned for the summer and fall terms.
Getting to the Metrics That Matter
The Kyron team must manage multiple stakeholder groups (e.g., faculty, instructional designers, administrators) to demonstrate Kyron’s positive impact on students, and ultimately grow from a pilot to a more expansive launch.
Metrics That Matter Action Plan
• Conducting stakeholder interviews and designing sessions to identify the data the institution cares most about and will use to determine whether to roll out the product beyond the pilot phase.
• Designing a data collection process to consistently capture and report learner sentiment and outcomes across course sections.
• Learning from this process; insights will guide how Kyron scales its go-to-market strategy to reach more institutions.
Metrics That Matter
Student engagement and improving course pass rates.
Results
Although the pilot is still in progress, Kyron has developed a well-defined measurement framework that incorporates input from multiple customer stakeholders.
This framework, along with the supporting processes and insights, is now positioned to be replicated across all future pilots.
Company Profile: Springboard
Gautam
Tambay CEO
Approach
Springboard offers flexible, tech-enabled training programs in business-critical areas, designed to launch new careers and supported by 1:1 mentorship and coaching. Vision
Prepare students for the most in-demand jobs in tech, business and healthcare to transform 1 million lives by 2030.
Why We Invested
We invested because Springboard believes in transforming lives at scale, making job-ready education accessible to people left out by traditional colleges, with learner outcomes that set the standard for online upskilling and training.
Series B
Demonstrating ROI to Fuel B2B Growth
Context
Springboard launched software development and data analytics courses with one of the world’s largest tech companies to support frontline workforce reskilling into software development and data analytics roles.
Metrics That Matter
• Increasing the placement rate for learners with less than a bachelor’s degree.
• Reducing the cost of traditional talent strategies.
Getting to the Metrics That Matter
Springboard analyzed its sales pipeline to help inform which metrics would also resonate with prospective customers with similar frontline workforce needs.
Metrics That Matter Action Plan
• Using case studies strategically in the sales cycle to highlight partner decisions and their results.
• Updating marketing materials to showcase this partnership success story to attract similar potential customers.
Company Profile: Acadeum
Richard Keaveny CEO
Stage
Series B
Vision
Remove the barriers to persistence to provide all students with an affordable, frictionless pathway to completion.
Approach
Acadeum makes it easy for colleges to share courses, so students can stay on track and graduate— even if their home campus doesn’t offer the courses they need when they need them.
Why We Invested
We invested because Acadeum helps institutions remove barriers for students, unlocking more opportunities— thousands have already earned credits through the platform, with strong completion and pass rates across the board.1
Removing Barriers to Completion
Using Customer Insights for Product Roadmap Optimization
Context
Acadeum wanted to problem-solve around low utilization at key institutions and update GTM playbooks and product roadmap with lessons from existing customers.
Getting to the Metrics That Matter
During interviews with existing customers, Acadeum identified integration with existing workflows and systems as a key friction point for key customers.
Metrics That Matter
• Boosting customer utilization.
• Improving student term-over-term retention.
Metrics That Matter Action Plan
• Enhancing platform integration with student information systems to make the platform easier for advisors to use Acadeum.
• Updating sales and customer success materials to clarify implementation steps and outcome metrics.
Monitoring Progress
We love partnering with our portfolio companies and are committed to focusing on the impact outcomes that matter most. When there’s a clear opportunity to help a company amplify its impact, our Impact Acceleration team jumps in—with dedicated time, resources and expertise—supporting projects that truly move the needle.
Our impact framework helps us stay focused on real outcomes and gives us a consistent way to track progress across the portfolio. It also allows us to dig deeper into the connection between impact and financial results, so we can further demonstrate the business case for impact.
In 2024, 87% of EIF portfolio companies saw an increase in their respective reach metrics YoY, demonstrating an increasing ability to deliver impact for underserved learners.
Voice of Impact
“I’m just really thankful for Backpack in general. And I’m really thankful that you guys also take Medicaid, ’cause that’s my family, we live paycheck to paycheck and I didn’t think that I would ever be able to have the opportunity to take therapy.”
Problem
Millions of youth on Medicaid struggle to access timely, high-quality mental health services because of provider shortages and long wait times.
Approach
Backpack delivers virtual therapy and psychiatry through a tiered care model and a clinician residency program that builds a more representative and diverse clinician workforce, while reducing patient wait times from weeks to days and reaching underserved children where others can’t.
Supporting 843 community colleges, HBCUs and MSIs
Learners on Medicaid
Evidence
Backpack Health grew active users on Medicaid by 85%, which now represents 46% of all users on the platform.
Providing training simulations to 169K+ skilled trades workers
Delivering course enhancements to ~2.7K online learners
Reach Metric
In 2024, 100% of EIF portfolio companies were able to maintain or increase their efficacy metrics YoY and saw an average NPS of 42.
Voice of Impact
“Motivo’s platform offers an effective approach to clinical supervision, which has a direct impact on strengthening the mental health workforce in California...Our partnership with Motivo Health will help us achieve our goal of improving access to public behavioral health systems and programs for all Californians.”
—Lucero Robles, Quality Assurance and Compliance Director at CalMHSA
Pathstream has an average wage uplift of over $20,000
Problem
A whopping 57% of counseling graduates never make it through the licensure process due to complicated supervision requirements. This dropout rate is directly fueling our nationwide shortage of behavioral health providers.1
Approach
Motivo’s digital platform makes it easy for organizations and therapists to connect with licensed supervisors, accelerating licensure and broadening access to mental healthcare nationwide.
Efficacy Metric
Supervision hours in mental health shortage areas
Evidence
With an impressive supervisor NPS of 61 and an outstanding supervisee NPS of 88, Motivo is making a meaningful difference for both groups of clinicians.
8% Increase YoY completion rate
30% Growth in task success While also growing weekly average users (WAU) of incarcerated learners by 7%
Earned a Level 3 certification under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for its personalized SAT Math Curriculum
146% Increase in completed practice exams YoY2
In 2024, 60% of EIF portfolio companies saw an improvement in scalability,1 with many companies using AI-first strategies to scale.
Problem
Many college students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, lack support networks, fueling dropout rates and undermining belonging.
Approach
Mentor Collective partners with universities to deliver large-scale, high-impact mentorship, connecting students with trained mentors to increase retention, engagement and student success.
Evidence
Mentor Collective boosted efficiency by automating key platform services with AI, including customer success and reporting tools. This enabled it to reduce operating expenses by 24%—all while deepening engagement and expanding reach by 39%.
Increasing therapist utilization and using predictive AI to improve patienttherapist matching
Leverage GenAI tooling to generate operational efficiencies for partner success
Trudy, Sophomore at University of West Florida
PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW
Recent Investments
Investing in visionary teams who are building a better future for learners and workers.
Solution
Q4 ’24
Be My Eyes, powered by AI and a global community, shatters barriers for people who are blind or have low vision—making daily life, work and customer service radically accessible.
Impact
Used by millions in 150+ countries, Be My Eyes fuels true independence, boosts workplace inclusion and delivers higher productivity for both users and organizations.
Impact In Action
“Human potential is varied and diverse. ”
“If companies make judgments simply on appearance, then you lose a lot of talent; I think you make a better workforce with people from different backgrounds.”
–Chong Chan Yau, Executive Director, CarbonCare InnoLab
Core Education partners directly with regional colleges by embedding with leadership teams to unlock operational wins, drive student success and strengthen local impact—delivering big results for small budgets.
Impact
Institutions working with Core see real progress: better student retention, more workforce-aligned programs and healthier finances, helping them thrive in today’s changing education landscape.
Impact In Action
“Core uses a cost recovery approach that enables Regis to reach higher margins for our growth initiatives...This new partnership will enable Regis to expand our vast offerings for students.”
–Antoinette Hays, President, Regis College
Invested Q1 ’25
Growth Equity
Kamalika Sandell CEO
Removing Barriers to Completion
Invested
Fueling Career Success Solution
Recent Investments
Investing in visionary teams who are building a better future for learners and workers.
Fueling Career Success Solution
Madi Co-Founder & CEO
Series B
Invested Q4 ’24
Stepful fast-tracks working adults into healthcare careers with digital training, live coaching and AI-powered feedback—moving learners from the classroom to the clinic, faster.
Impact
Ranked #1 in 2025 U.S. EdTech by TIME, Stepful boasts industry-leading graduation and job placement rates, putting thousands of learners on life-changing career paths and boosting wages for those who need it most.
Impact In Action
Solution
YouScience’s platform uncovers every student’s unique strengths with industry-recognized aptitude assessments, then connects them to personalized career pathways and certifications—all in one platform.
Impact
Invested Q1 ’25
With nearly a million students empowered each year, YouScience helps schools unlock funding, boost engagement and close equity gaps—launching more learners on confident, high-opportunity paths.
Impact In Action
Carl
Growth Equity
Edson Barton Co-Founder & CEO
Unlocking Equitable Pathways
Our team would love to discuss your insights and your solutions.
educationimpactfund.org
Stay in Touch
Our portfolio is impacting millions of learners who face barriers to success across the postsecondary and workforce landscape. Our investment thesis is driven by the opportunity to remove these barriers by supporting innovative, impact-oriented solutions to improve educational access and outcomes.
