Empowerly, a data-driven education technology platform that offers personalized college and career guidance, recently secured a $15 million funding round led by Conductive Ventures. With this additional financing, the company plans to extend its college counselling services, focusing on developing its artificial intelligence and machine learning product enhancements, such as the predictive capabilities of the AI-powered Empowerly Score. It also wants to broaden its admissions and data analytics teams and prepare to launch a mobile application.
Launched in 2018 by Changxiao Xie and Hanmei Wu, Empowerly aims to democratize college admissions with a combination of online data-driven algorithms and personalized services from college counsellors and mentors, having helped thousands of students. The platform includes personalized best-fit counsellors and mock admissions committee reviews, opportunities to intern at Silicon Valley startups, virtual extracurriculars, and the new Empowerly Score. Since its launch, the firm has built a network of over 100 world-class college counsellors with over 720 collective years of academic guidance and admissions experience.
Speaking on the fundraising, Co-founder of Empowerly, Hanmei Wu, said:
Empowerly remains committed to providing every student with the resources, guidance, and expertise to navigate an incredibly challenging college admissions landscape. The average college application process can take up to 200 hours and is notoriously overwhelming for students and parents alike. We’re excited to use this latest funding to scale our counselling services further to help even more students, lessening the pressure on families so they can focus on the excitement around this pivotal time in their lives.
With over 122,550 college applications read and reviewed, the firm has helped thousands of students gain admission to their desired colleges. The Empowerly Score — the only predictive technology that can also quantify subjective material — provides students with a 360-degree view of how to be competitive against other applicants. In July 2023, Empowerly joined the Sequoia marketplace to offer their college and career counselling services as an employee benefit – providing working parents with a valuable resource to navigate the complexities of the college admissions process and make informed financial decisions.
Adding further about the investment, Co-founder of Empowerly, Changxiao Xie, said:
The past year has been challenging for the entire startup ecosystem, and some say this has been one of the worst funding environments in the past decade. This round is a testament to the platform and services we’ve created, from recruiting former Ivy League admissions officers to leveraging data and machine learning to evaluate and improve students’ outcomes from high school to college and beyond. We’re working with more students and families than ever and seeing fantastic outcomes year after year, and we are excited to keep up the momentum.
Carey Lai, Founding Member & Managing Director of Conductive Ventures, stated:
Empowerly continues to prove itself as the leader in technology-powered college counselling, and we are honoured to work with them to continue democratizing the college admissions process for all. The entire Empowerly team’s passion for student success, combined with their immense wealth of knowledge and experience, has created a truly unique, valuable, and highly effective product. As a parent, customer, and investor, I look forward to participating in this journey to evolve and elevate the college and career landscape.
To date, Empowerly has raised $30 million from investors, including Conductive Ventures, Goodwater Capital, FJ Labs, Scrum Ventures, Translink Capital, American Student Assistance, Spero Ventures, and Mentors Fund.
