This week’s featured startup
NewU University (Jonas Rolett, Chief Development Officer): NewU provides a path to college for students who would not otherwise be able to attend. We offer a Bachelor’s degree in three years for an average cost of under $20,000 (for all three years).
Data Dive
Continued decline in U.S. median tenures with current employer (US Bureau of Labor Statistics): Tenure continues to decline since its high in 2012. Research shows that female workers, and younger workers overall, were more likely to be short-tenured employees.
Investment
Moombix Secures $5 Million Seed Round to Revolutionize Music Distribution (Digital Music News): Moombix enables verified musicians to set their own prices for 30-minute one-on-one livestream lessons, per the appropriate website.
FullyRamped raises $2.3M to train sales reps faster with AI role play (GlobeNewswire): FullyRamped’s platform provides AI-powered custom personas that sales reps can engage with to refine their skills in an environment that mimics the progression of a real sales call.
UK edtech STEM startup Twin Science & Robotics secures £12.5M investment (Tech.eu): Offering sustainability-focused impactful STEM education to more than 1.5 million students from 4,000 primary schools across 40 countries.
Nurture announces $2.8 million pre-seed round, led by Golden Gate Ventures (TechCrunch): The company’s mission is to equip children with critical life skills, through a new app designed for children aged 4-7 that features interactive content and games to capture their interest.
Brisk Teaching Raises $6.9M in Funding for AI Education Tool and Unveils Brisk Boost AI-Powered Activities for Students (PR Newswire): Brisk Boost allows teachers to turn any content into an engaging activity, providing students with instant support, adaptive quizzes, and interactive brainstorming sessions to enrich their learning experience.
London’s Perlego bags €18.1M to expand its digital library (Silicon Canals): Dialogo, their AI-powered research assistant designed to enhance the research process, enables students to easily locate relevant sources in its library, providing overviews and directing students to the full text of cited titles.
AI edtech build Club prompts $1.75M pre-seed funding (Startup Daily): The startup offers project-based learning, tailored to meet industry demands for an evolving AI workforce, through its “bounty” system: real-life business problems submitted by startups and businesses.
Events
Social Capital in the Age of AI (WorkRise Network) Oct 24: A discussion about the critical role of social capital in economic mobility and the emerging opportunities to leverage generative AI to increase equity and access to social capital.
Opportunities
MITRE Rise is the new accelerator helping founders of color bring their health tech ideas to life (People of Color in Tech): The six-month accelerator is designed to help tech founders through hands-on mentorship, cutting-edge resources, and an extensive network of health and technology experts.
In the news
Chip industry faces talent shortage as revenues head to $1 trillion: Deloitte (VentureBeat): The semiconductor industry is facing an aging workforce without a clear plan for succession, which may be further exacerbated by low industry appeal compared to the broader tech industry.
Executives and Researchers Disagree About Hybrid Work (The New York Times): Executives are not convinced by the research. Or they see their company as different. Or they are just over it.
The U.S. Department of Education, Explained (Education Week): How it was created, what are the different offices, how it facilitates educational research, how different administrations used the Education Department — and how could the presidential election could change it.
Proof Points: A Decade of Free Community College (Hechinger Report): The program hasn’t helped many low-income students financially, but the worst case scenario (declining demand at four-year colleges) hasn’t played out.
Survey finds students base college decisions on state politics (Inside Higher Ed): Significantly more students are citing particular sociopolitical issues — e.g. abortion rights, gun control and LGBTQ+ rights — as exerting influence on why they nixed a certain institution.
Workday and SpringHill-Produced Documentary “UNTAPPED” is Now Available on Netflix in the U.S. (Yahoo! Finance): Featuring Mark Cuban and CEOs from GM, JPMorganChase, Walmart and more, UNTAPPED encourages Corporate America to adopt inclusive talent strategies.
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