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Empowerly , an edtech startup that differentiate in college counsel and career counselling Service , grow $ 15 million in a recent funding round take by Conductive Ventures , the company announced today . The new majuscule will go toward rise its services , build out its AI - powered products and developing its first peregrine app , which is fix to set in motion in the U.S. by the end of 2024 . Empowerly has raised $ 30 million to particular date .
“ The past year has been challenging for the entire inauguration ecosystem , and some are articulate this has been one of the bad funding environments in the past decade , ” Centennial State - founder Changxiao Xie says . “ This round is a testament to the platform and services we ’ve created , from our recruitment of former Ivy League entrance money officeholder to the way we ’ve leveraged data and machine learning to evaluate and better scholar ’ outcomes from high school to college and beyond . We ’re puzzle out with more student and families than ever before and encounter fantastic outcomes twelvemonth over class , and are excited to keep up the impulse . ”
The troupe ’s financing comes at a time when admissions season is becoming more free-enterprise than ever , and high school counselors are n’t always equip to leave expert advice on college - relate issues . According toCommon App ’s Research Brief , there has been a strong upsurge in college applications , with 3,353,516 coating sent to the M of school on the Common App for the 2023–24 academic twelvemonth , up 65 % from 2019–20 ( 2,028,507 ) .
“ Last class was one of the most competitive college admissions seasons of all time , ” Colorado - founder Hanmei Wu tells TechCrunch . “ Some Ivy Leagues , like Yale , reported the low acceptance rates they ’ve seen in decades . Yet , students still are n’t getting the right funding . The counselor - to - student ratio is over 400 - to-1 , and students are feeling left behind just like I did years ago . ”
Founded in 2018 , Empowerly aims to take the pressure off students , who may spend anywhere from60 to 200 hoursapplying to colleges . After a 30 - minute free consultation with a student , Empowerly designs a customized plan that includes serving like college counseling , essay redaction , financial preparation , admission charge reviews , internship prep and matching , research mentorship and more . educatee meet on a regular basis with counsel and can speak with essay specialist , pre - professional specialist mentors and former admissions officer from top university . Empowerly has a connection of over 100 college counselors who focus on country such as pre - med , engineering , STEM , business , law and man , among others .
Pricing for each military service varies but the company shares that its “ comprehensive direction packages ” are typically $ 5,000 and above . OneReddit userreported paying about $ 1,600 for 16 individual essay sessions on Empowerly , while another exploiter claims to have pay $ 9,000 for its servicing ( yet did n’t say which specific serving they paid for ) .
Empowerly brag its proprietary applied science — The Empowerly Score — as the master differentiator between its competition , which includeCollegeWise , Solomon Admission ConsultingandAcceptU. The Empowerly Score evaluates a student ’s extracurricular activities ( athletics , residential district armed service , and clubs ) , accomplishment ( accolade and leaders office ) , academic , and essay , then leverages predictive machine - memorise poser to give a individual score , play up the areas that students should improve to better vie against other applier .
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“ It is the only predictive engineering that can also measure immanent textile , ” Xie notes . “ Our tens of thousands of information points and proprietary internal datasets also help students and advocate receive the most up - to - date information on what schools and competitory summer programs care about regard in applicants ( including standardized tests , essay scheme , etc . ) , what raw programs are available this yr that may not have been available last year , what opportunity are well fit for particular educatee profile , and what scholarships scholar may qualify for . ”
The marking system help Empowerly counsel understand which area students should focus the volume of their time , whether that be practice taking more standardised tests or signing up for additional extracurriculars .
“ Each of the top 200 U.S. university ( with more college being sum ) has a benchmark tie in with its admissions difficulty level , and our platform and counselor-at-law liken the student ’s Empowerly Score to these bench mark to understand what areas the student is potent in or postulate extra work , ” Xie added .
The caller also offer several experience - focused programme for students to enhance their college program . For illustration , Empowerly connects high school students with practical internships at startup in the Bay Area . scholar can also meet with PhD student who have studied in labs at prestigious school like Columbia , Brown , and MIT .
Additionally , Empowerly join the Sequoia marketplace in July 2023 , leave its services as an employee benefit to ferment parents .
