University Ventures

University Ventures is a New York City-based investment firm founded in 2011 and focused exclusively on the global higher-education and workforce-education sector. Founded by a quartet of veterans of the for-profit and nonprofit education worlds, including co-founder and managing director Daniel Pianko, a former Goldman Sachs banker and the first outside director of Altius Education, and managing director Ryan Craig, founding director of Bridgepoint Education, the firm pursues a strategy it calls 'innovation from within,' partnering with leading universities to jointly develop and deploy innovative higher-education programs across Europe and the United States. Its models combine the entrepreneurship, capital and management expertise of the private sector with the academic integrity, quality-assurance processes and brands of traditional institutions. University Ventures manages roughly $300 million across its funds, anchored by a $100 million-plus Fund I whose two largest investors were German media group Bertelsmann and the University of Texas Investment Management Company. The firm invests from seed through growth stages, most actively at Series A, concentrating on edtech and education-enterprise companies, and it is willing to lead. Its portfolio and track record, which includes one IPO and several acquisitions, features IT-training and staffing firm Revature, whose Series A it led alongside Eden Capital and USA Funds, Synergis Education, Appier, Techtonic, a Brandman University partnership and campus-engagement platform Ready Education, whose $5.3 million Series A it led with Y Combinator. By co-developing programs with universities, University Ventures backs the next generation of higher-education and workforce companies.