Impact investing in EdTech
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Our guests bring a complementary perspective: Marie-Christine Levet is founding partner at Educapital, a European EdTech VC that closed its second fund with a €150 million closing. John Soleanicov works for the Jacobs Foundation, which committed CHF 30 million to impact investments into EdTech, and CHF 10 million funding for accompanying research. We discuss the rationale for promoting EdTech and the complementary roles of grants and impact investments. We hear about Educapital’s and the Jacobs Foundation’s approach to impact measurement, and how Marie-Christine incentives her team to strive for more impact. Our conversation also touches upon what business models based on advertising mean for inclusion and educational sovereignty.
Key takeaways
- The CHF 30 million deployed into EdTech by the Jacobs Foundation are going towards funds that have committed to use evidence in decision-making processes and collaborate on research projects. The learnings shall contribute to better use of impact data in investment processes.
- Future returns from the foundation’s impact investments are intended to finance the accompanying research facility, aiming to make it self-sustaining in the long run.
- Educapital measures the impact of its investments through 3 indicators: reach, inclusion and learning outcomes. As an incentive for the team to strive for more impact, the carried interest of the fund is linked to achieving these impact indicators.
Links
- This two-pager explains the Jacobs Foundation’s CHF 40 million commitment to global EdTech research and investment
- Educapital’s website includes annual impact and ESG reports
- John cited the “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA) tiers of evidence as a framework that helps assess qualitative differences in impact measurement.
About Financing Impact
Financing Impact is a podcast about funding and scaling societal impact. This podcast is brought to you by SciFi, the Societal Impact Financing Initiative at ESMT Berlin. SciFi is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
For feedback on the show or to suggest guests for future episodes, contact us at scifi@esmt.org
