Leading edtech and workforce VC’s portfolio companies achieve scalable impact for 72 million Americans
New Markets Venture Partners (‘New Markets’), the nation’s oldest edtech-focused venture capital firm announces today the release of its new 2023 Impact Report. The firm’s team has decades of experience as a double-bottom-line investor and has been driving sustainable social impact dating back to the Socially Responsible Investor (SRI) movement of the 1990s.
The report highlights New Markets’ solutions and methodology to address key milestones and loss points along the education-to-employment journey, and the individual and collective accomplishments of the firm’s portfolio companies over the last several years to significantly improve lifecycle outcomes, especially for those who are most at-risk.
By pursuing a targeted approach to investing in impactful, evidence-based solutions, the New Markets portfolio companies have generated a measurable improvement in economic mobility for 72 million Americans, making meaningful progress in addressing gaps in education and labor markets for underrepresented groups. Notably, the firm’s investments have shown scalable impact, creating significant positive outcomes in the following areas:
Quality Jobs: 57% median salary increase for 70,000+ learners
Post Secondary Credentials: 63M+ credentials issued verifying evidence of skills and achievement, and increasing labor market outcomes
21st Century Skills: 19.2M+ at risk-youth retained in school, advancing on a path to success
High School Credentials: 100,000+ high school dropouts and adult learners re-engaged, credentialed, and back on the path to increased opportunity
Reformative Skills: 72% reduction in suspensions by providing students with tools to improve academic outcomes and increase positivity
3rd Grade Literacy & 6th Grade Math: 3.5M+ students provided with the building blocks to increase Math and English proficiency
As the impact management ecosystem evolves, New Markets is committed to spearheading efforts within the education and workforce sectors by prioritizing truly authentic impact measurement and reporting. By employing a quantitative framework based on clarity, consistency, transparency, and rigor, New Markets aims to lead the way toward a more impactful and accountable future.
As a pioneer of market-rate impact investing at the Calvert Group over 30 years ago, Mark Grovic, Co-founder and General Partner of New Markets comments, “Our firm has supported proven solutions that have measurably improved outcomes for millions, but many structural barriers to economic mobility continue to persist. We remain committed to investing in and helping grow deeply impactful companies that support our core mission to provide equitable access to opportunities that lead to economic mobility for all learners and workers.”
As part of this commitment, New Markets continues to play a key leadership role within the impact investing industry. Back in 2017, Mark Grovic was a founding board member of Impact Capital Managers (“ICM”), a membership association which today includes over 100 leading impact funds representing more than $36 billion in double bottom-line, impact-focused capital. New Markets also envisioned and sponsored the seminal Mosaic Fellow Program at ICM, now placing its fourth class of diverse MBA students from non-traditional backgrounds into fellowships at leading impact funds.
“We are also especially grateful to many thought partners and capital partners who have helped us along our own impact journey. Friends at Lumina Foundation played a pivotal role anchoring our 2010 fund, encouraging us to double down on our early successes in education technology, and helping us lean into the fast-growing alternative pathways and digital credentials trends,” adds Jason Palmer, General Partner of New Markets. “Since then, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Strada Education Network, and ECMC Group have all played key roles in helping us refine our own Impact Theory of Change, especially our focus on research-based milestones and underserved populations.”
Over the last two decades, New Markets has placed investments with 41 companies, including 35 education and workforce companies, and generated $3.3 billion in value for shareholders. The firm recently raised a new $160 million dollar fund and expanded its global network of investment partners. For more information, download New Markets 2023 Impact Report: https://newmarketsvp.com/our-impact/
About New Markets Venture Partners
New Markets Venture Partners (NMVP; ‘New Markets’) is one of the nation’s leading impact venture capital firms, investing in and actively assisting early- and growth-stage education and workforce technology companies. New Markets has decades of experience supporting evidence-based, high-growth companies that improve economic and social mobility by leveraging deep relationships with centers of education, workforce, and human capital innovation. New Markets prides itself on adding value to its portfolio companies before, during, and after the investment process, with the ultimate goal of improving both individual outcomes and America’s education and workforce system as a whole.
Read full story here