New Markets Venture Partners Raises Over $160 Million for Economic Mobility Fund

New Markets Ventures Partners, a Washington, DC-based EdTech and workforce technology venture capital firm, recently announced that it has raised over $160 million for its Economic Mobility Fund. The company received support from its existing investor base and new US and European education-focused foundations and endowments.

It also received commitments from multiple publicly traded strategic investors validating its evidence-based investment strategy to drive collective impact, unique deal flow, and thought leadership. These new limited partners include academic publishers, global skills development leaders, human resources experts, and large-impact investment funds.

The new fund underscores and strengthens New Markets’ commitment to invest in innovative, scalable companies with evidence-based solutions that focus on increasing the proportion of underserved Americans who achieve critical, research-based, developmental milestones in education, career, and life.

Founded by Robb Doub, Mark Grovic, and Jason Palmer, New Markets Venture Partners is a leading, growth-stage, double-bottom-line investor that scales transformative technology companies that improve education and workforce outcomes, resulting in superior financial returns. The platform maintains deep relationships with states, districts, universities, large employers, co-investors, buyers, and workforce organizations, enabling them to provide exceptional value to all its stakeholders.

Commenting on the investment, Co-founder & General Partner of New Markets Venture Partners, Mark Grovic, said:

We are fortunate to have this unique opportunity to provide capital and support to the most deserving mission-driven education and workforce entrepreneurs. Over the last three decades, we have accumulated the assets and experience to understand the challenges faced by the nation’s top education and workforce entrepreneurs and to help them overcome these challenges.

The startup has made equity investments in 41 companies, focusing on EdTech and workforce technology companies, measurably improving economic mobility for more than 47 million Americans while generating $3.3 billion in value for shareholders. With 26 realizations since 2012, New Markets has one of the most substantial proven records of successful exits, cash distributions back to limited partners, and positive social returns of any impact investor in the country.

New Markets Education Partners III, LP., will target Series A and B investments and opportunistic recapitalizations focusing on companies generating $2 million to $50 million of revenue with a high potential to grow to $50 million to $200 million in revenue and reach profitability within three years of the initial investment.

Over the last three years, the firm has invested in seven new companies and realized ten investments, including Credly, Presence, LearnPlatform, Signal Vine, Kickboard, Mursion, StraighterLine, Whiteboard Advisors, Galvanize, and Graduation Alliance, which totalled more than $1 billion in market value and returned over $100 million to limited partners.

General Partner of New Markets and previously Deputy Director of Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Jason Palmer, commented:

We are honoured to work with the nation’s most innovative founders, scaling new technologies that can truly transform education and work. These entrepreneurs are re-inventing education-to-workforce connections, building more equitable pathways to the middle class for millions of Americans from underserved backgrounds – and doing so in a way that proves capitalism can do good.

New Markets is a founding board member of Impact Capital Managers, a membership association, which today includes more than 85 funds representing more than $36B in impact-focused capital. It helped to envision and create ICM’s Mosaic Fellow program. The ICM Mosaic Fellowship is part of the Impact Capital Manager’s commitment to building a pipeline of diverse, skilled talent in the alternative investment industry.

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