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As college tuition increases and the student loan debt crisis continues, three former executives from the language learning app Duolingo are building a new startup aimed at making college education less expensive and accessible.
The company, its initial name Education excellence (Name not yet final), and is chaired by the co-founders Daniel Falabella (CPO), former Senior Product Manager for Learning at Duolingo ABC; Jenna Gotthelf (CMO), former Vice President of Growth and Marketing at Duolingo; and Georgie still (CEO), former Chief Product Officer at Duolingo.
Outsmart announced a $13 million seed funding round on Monday, led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Karman Ventures, Latitud Ventures, and Lightspeed Ventures, as well as angel investors, including Lenny Ratchitsky (former head of product at Airbnb) and 20Growth, among others. Others. The capital will be used for hiring and product development.
He says the idea for Outsmart came out of frustration with the current system. When Mazal moved to the United States to pursue college, he did not have the resources to pay for it and had to find a way to finance his education through a combination of jobs, scholarships, and other means. When he pursued master’s programs at Harvard and Wharton, he did not realize how much debt he would end up incurring.
“I was a quarter of a million dollars in debt,” Mazal told TechCrunch. “I had to get a part-time job where I picked up trash in an apartment complex every morning just to make ends meet, and for me, that was just a representation of what happened in higher education.”
Since the company is currently operating in stealth mode, it is not yet able to share its specific plans. Despite this, the project looks promising given the level of its backers.
“A college-level education is a fundamental and universal human right,” Ethan Choi, partner at Khosla Ventures, told TechCrunch. “I’m actually a first-generation college student. Education has completely changed my life and will impact my family for generations… I just think what (Outsmart) is doing will change the world.”
Outsmart arrives at a time when many families are struggling to pay for a college degree. For the academic year 2024-2025 Average tuition and fees Ranked private colleges rose by about 5.5% over the past year, while public schools saw an increase of more than 2%. Overall, Americans are almost indebted $1.6 trillion In student loans.
“The mission we are trying to achieve is to dramatically increase access to higher education in an unprecedented way that we believe can change the world,” Mazal told us.
Many companies aim to help college students access an affordable education, including platforms that compare college tuition fees, such as Track tuition feesas well as companies that offer inexpensive online education. There are also matchmaking platforms, e.g Rover College and Simply put, collegeWhich helps students determine which college is best suited for them.
Since Outsmart is keeping details of its offerings under wraps, it’s still unclear how or if it fits into these existing categories. Regardless, the founders themselves seem well-equipped to make inroads in this space. The trio has worked at Duolingo for five years and previously held positions at several other notable companies. Falabella has experience at Dropbox and Lucid Software, while Gottif previously worked at Tumblr. Mazal has worked at Lucid, MyFitnessPal, and Zynga.
Mazal believes Outsmart will be “better than existing higher education options in basically every dimension, in terms of accessibility, affordability and customization.”
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