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A Focus on Impact

Our Portfolio Companies Make a Difference

Our portfolio companies spend every day removing obstacles and working to overcome challenges students and workers have to get a good education and a good job.

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Feb 24, 2026

5

min read

News & Updates

Mantra Health Appoints New Executive Leadership, Ensuring Success of New Persistence Intelligence Platform Beacon

Following the recent launch of Beacon, the first persistence intelligence platform for higher education, Mantra Health today announced the expansion of leadership with the hiring of Zahra Safavian, Phil Tallman, and Jessica E. Bright.

Feb 24, 2026

4

min read

News & Updates

Orijin Acquires Honest Jobs to Create the First End-to-End Education-to-Employment Pathway for Justice-Involved Individuals in the U.S.

Orijin, a national leader in correctional education and workforce development technology, today announced the acquisition of Honest Jobs, a national fair-chance employment platform connecting formerly incarcerated individuals with job opportunities and reentry resources.

Feb 5, 2026

2

min read

Censia

Censia AI Adds Peter M. Fasolo to Board, Strengthening the Workforce Intelligence Layer for Enterprise Transformation

Censia AI, the enterprise workforce system of intelligence, announced today the appointment of Peter M. Fasolo to its Board of Directors. Fasolo brings decades of experience leading global talent strategy and organizational transformation and will help guide Censia's mission to make workforce decisions faster, more precise, and continuously adaptive.

Feb 5, 2026

3

min read

Orijin

Instructure and Orijin Partner to Expand Secure, Scalable Education Across United States Correctional Systems

Instructure, the leading learning ecosystem and maker of Canvas LMS, powered by AWS, announced a partnership with Orijin, a leading education and workforce development platform for correctional systems, to expand secure, scalable education across correctional facilities nationwide. Orijin chose to partner with Instructure for its ability to scale alongside Orijin and address the increasing complexity of delivering secure, high-quality education for correctional facilities.

Feb 3, 2026

2

min read

Regent Education

Regent Education Joins the CollegeBuys Institutional Purchasing Program

Regent Education, a leader in SaaS-based financial aid and fund management solutions, announced today a new partnership with CollegeBuys. As part of this agreement, California's community colleges will have access to discounted pricing for the Regent Award Suite of financial aid and fund management solutions.

Feb 2, 2026

2

min read

Regent Education

Regent Education is Excited to Announce We’re TrustEd App Certified for CBE

Higher education is facing increasing pressure to demonstrate how learning translates into real-world skills, sparking a rise in competency-based education (CBE) programs nationwide.

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Higher Education Text Messaging Platform Signal Vine Secures $2M; New Markets Venture Partners leads Series A funding round

  • Jul 26, 2017
  • 2 min read

Updated: Nov 20, 2024

Signal Vine, a leading enterprise text messaging platform used by higher education institutions to improve student retention and persistence, announced today it has secured $2 million in Series A funding. The round was led by New Markets Venture Partners, an early and growth stage venture capital firm that invests in and helps build transformative education, information technology, and business services companies.


More than 200 higher education institutions and college success organizations use Signal Vine’s enterprise text messaging platform to text students at scale and nudge them to success. Signal Vine customers have used this approach to achieve high-impact results, including an 11 percent increase in matriculation and a 20 percent improvement in persistence.


Organizations scale their texting programs across departments by integrating their data systems and leveraging unique platform features such as blended messaging, which allows organizations to send a combination of automated and manual messages in a single conversation thread. This saves staff time while still building strong relationships with students across the entire student lifecycle to improve student success.


“Communication is changing quickly and we want to help institutions keep up with these changes and reach students where they are – on their phones, texting. Texting is a very personal form of communication, so it needs to be done right to be effective at the scale that universities need. We take a unique approach by enabling blended text messaging – a combination of manual and personalized, platform-generated messages in the same message flow,” said Signal Vine CEO Brian Kathman. “To ensure our customers are communicating effectively, we leverage behavioral science strategies so a few highly powerful messages can maximize results and engagement. The outcomes and ROIs our customers are experiencing with their students are amazing.”


“We are thrilled to be part of Signal Vine’s bright future and excited to see their growth,” said Robb Doub, General Partner at New Markets Venture Partners. “Their leadership in the market and enthusiastic customer base is a recipe for success. Most importantly, Signal Vine’s solution is specifically designed to reach students in a personalized, scalable manner that improves student retention and persistence, both of which are top priorities for higher education leaders.”


Signal Vine’s Series A follows more than three years of strong growth and adoption of its market-leading enterprise messaging platform. The funds raised will be used to accelerate product development in machine learning and platform analytics, as well as continued sales and marketing growth. For more information about Signal Vine, visit signalvine.com.


About Signal Vine


Signal Vine’s enterprise text messaging platform transforms the way higher education institutions reach and engage students. Nearly 100% of students and families have access to text messaging, making it the most powerful way to communicate with any student at any time. Built on the principles of behavioral science, the Signal Vine platform combines text messaging with data analytics to deliver a highly personalized and interactive experience for students. Proactive text nudges sent through the platform are a powerful driver of positive behaviors and outcomes ranging from matriculation to enrollment to persistence. Students don’t need to download anything to receive messages. The company serves more than 200 higher education organizations, including the Utah System of Higher Education, University of New Mexico, and Austin Community College.


Visit signalvine.com for more information, or follow Signal Vine on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.


 
 
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