Higher Ed AI Pioneer Raises $14 Million to Realize the Potential of Chatbots for Student Success

Impact investors, education philanthropies back AdmitHub’s Series B funding round to accelerate degree completion for low-income and first-generation students

Boston-based AdmitHub, whose conversational student engagement platform boosts enrollment, persistence, and completion at hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, announced that it has secured $14 million in Series B funding led by Rethink Education. The financing round, which was joined by ECMC Group’s Education Impact Fund and Kresge Foundation’s impact investment fund, will support AdmitHub’s work to tap emerging technologies that address the most critical challenges faced by students and institutions.

“Empathetic communication must be a linchpin of any university’s strategy to expand access and support retention — particularly in such uncertain times,” said Dawn Medley, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management at Wayne State University. “AdmitHub has been an invaluable part of Wayne State’s successful effort to increase enrollment among Black and Latinx students, contributing to our largest-ever incoming freshman class even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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AdmitHub, which also announced a forthcoming name change to Mainstay, developed the pioneering AI technology that reduced “summer melt” at Georgia State University by more than 30 percent. Recent follow-on research, also conducted at Georgia State, found that AdmitHub’s behaviorally intelligent chatbot technology helped the institution boost FAFSA filing and registration rates by 3 percentage points — demonstrating the potential of AI to not just increase college access, but also support institutions’ retention and completion goals.

“AdmitHub’s technology and approach exemplify the thoughtful application of AI to solve the most pressing challenges in education,” said Matt Greenfield, Managing Partner at Rethink Education. “Even amidst the turmoil of the past year, artificial intelligence has played a transformative role in institutions’ efforts to communicate quickly and effectively, in ways that improve access and retention at scale.”

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AdmitHub has increased college access, persistence, and success for more than 3 million students nationwide since its founding in 2014. They have achieved this through public-private partnerships with colleges and universities, state higher education systems like the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and nonprofit organizations like the Common App and College Advising Corps. By combining sophisticated technology and behavioral science in an intuitive student engagement platform, AdmitHub provides on-demand assistance via text message, web chat, and social media, answers questions in real time, and connects students to the appropriate advisors and resources.

“The past year has reinforced the reality that new challenges will always be around the corner for colleges and universities,” said Drew Magliozzi, Co-Founder and CEO of AdmitHub. “Partnering in close collaboration with schools around the country, we’re building an empathy engine for higher education that will enable institutions and their students to navigate even the biggest and most unexpected obstacles.”

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