October 02, 2018
Meritize, an education lender that uses an individual's academic, military and work achievements to enhance credit evaluation and expand funding for skills-based careers, today announced it has closed on a $13.2M Series A funding round. Colchis Capital helped lead the investment round with participation from other leading tech and education-focused investors including CLC, Chicago Ventures, Cube Financial Holdings, ZZ Ventures, Socratic Ventures, ECMC Group, University Ventures, PC Squared and Meritize management.
Meritize will use the funding to scale operations growth, enhance technology and accelerate its momentum as a market leader in skills-based career development and employer talent acquisition. The company will increase investment in its SkillsBuilding™️ platform which works with students, educators and employers to put more people to work in quality skills-based careers and help close the U.S. skills gap.
Meritize has experienced significant growth since its launch in January 2017. As of January of this year, the company increased its school partner platform by more than 400 percent and experienced cumulative growth in originations of 250 percent from Q1 to Q3 2018.
The company's proprietary merit-based funding model expands opportunities for students pursuing skills-based education by leveraging quantified academic, military and work achievement data as a key factor in evaluation. The addition of this achievement data allows Meritize to accurately assess the probability of student completion and loan repayment performance, expanding funding for students who have been previously under-served by traditional lending vehicles. Students who lack credit profiles or a co-borrower that would allow them to quality for traditional student loans can still get approved under the innovative Meritize lending model.
"We're very pleased with the response from investors who share our commitment to expand funding for students across the credit spectrum and help employers close their skills gap," said Meritize CEO Chris Keaveney. "It allows us to continue our mission to bring together smart students and quality skills-based training with a direct path to employment, and as a result, contribute to a healthy economy by building a more vibrant skilled workforce," he said.
"Colchis is very excited to have led the investment in Meritize. We look forward to seeing the company extend its leadership role in skills-based education financing and expand its market footprint to provide employer-based training and job placement. Meritize is a true innovator in the space, and the company is well positioned to execute on its long-term vision," said Jonathan Strike, Managing Director at Colchis Capital.
About Buck Institute for Education
Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping teachers to prepare students for successful lives by helping them to adopt Project Based Learning (PBL). BIE’s vision is for all students – no matter where they live or their background – to have access to high quality PBL so they deepen their learning and achieve success in college, career, and life.
In an effort to promote and support the use of high quality PBL, the BIE focuses efforts on building the capacity of teachers and school leaders. Through professional development and product development and dissemination, BIE builds the capacity of teachers to design and facilitate high quality PBL and the capacity of school and system leaders to set the conditions for teachers to implement great projects with all students.
About Meritize
Meritize is an education lender that uses an individual's academic, military and work achievements to enhance credit evaluation and expand funding for skills-based career development. The company's proprietary merit-based lending program goes beyond traditional underwriting to leverage individual academic and experiential data, resulting in increased access to educational funding and improved outcomes. The Meritize SkillsBuilding™️ platform supports skills-based education and employer talent development to help close the skills gap and build skills-based careers. Frisco, TX-based Meritize is privately held. For more information visit www.meritize.com.