Noodle Partners Inc., which helps colleges and universities expand access to and decrease the cost of premier online higher education, has raised approximately $14 million in a Series A funding.
San Francisco-based Owl Ventures led the investment, joining Noodle Partners' seed investors, Osage Venture Partners and New Markets Venture Partners. The capital will go toward expanding Noodle's online programs at Tulane, American and the additional dozen universities with which the company is working.
Beset with multiple challenges--and great opportunities--many colleges and universities have made going online or growing their online footprint a key strategic goal, yet many lack the resources to do so alone. Noodle Partners helps universities maximize existing resources, both human and financial, augmenting in-house talent with best-in-class providers in key areas such as digital marketing, recruitment, instructional design, student support, and tech integration.
"Technology should be able to raise the quality of higher ed while lowering its cost significantly, as it has with most other segments of society. Noodle is building best in class programs while saving schools $20,000 per student. The universities and funders who have joined us understand that," said John Katzman, founder and CEO of Noodle Partners. "And by the end of 2018, every Provost and CFO will."
"Noodle's model enables universities to capitalize on the incredible skill sets within the ed tech space without incurring the related overhead," said Melora Sundt, Chief Academic Officer of Noodle Partners, who joins from USC Rossier, where she built their world-class online programs. "Noodle's experience revisioning online education, combined with the ed tech world's ability to execute and a university's internal content expertise is producing some of the most compelling learning experiences available."
"We are excited about Noodle Partners' ability to radically transform how to design and run online education programs. As investors, we see great value and opportunity in this new model that rejects tuition sharing for the good of students and the future of higher education" said Tory Patterson, Managing Partner at Owl Ventures. "With a growing team and the ability to bring programs online less expensively and with more agility, Noodle Partners is positioned to revolutionize the way colleges and universities make their impending move online."
Noodle Partners was founded by John Katzman, who also founded 2U (NASDAQ: TWOU) and The Princeton Review. To date, Noodle Partners has raised nearly $18 million in funding.
ABOUT NOODLE PARTNERS:
Founded by a team of education and technology veterans, Noodle Partners creates innovative online and agile programs while improving traditional classroom models. Noodle Partners has the capability to work with universities on every aspect of building a certificate or degree program that they choose - marketing, student recruitment, enrollment, curriculum design, student engagement, support services, graduate placement, and alumni engagement - and provides an exceptionally high level of fit and finish.
ABOUT OWL VENTURES:
Owl Ventures is a San Francisco based venture capital fund that invests in the world's leading education technology companies. The team is laser-focused on the education market and takes a hands-on approach in helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses into transformative category leading companies. The firm has $285 million assets under management across two funds.