A high growth education technology company based in Medellin, Colombia,...
A high growth education technology company based in Medellin, Colombia, Aulas AMiGAS believes that the education paradigm can be changed only by producing better teachers. Its vision is to change teaching from a static rote model to a dynamic active learning experience and aspires to facilitate meaningful learning experiences within the classroom through innovative technological tools.
Presently used in over 25,000 classrooms with more than 50,000 teachers as users, its products have a simple user design with easy implementation in educational settings. The core product is a smart board that helps increase classroom interaction through Augmented Reality.
Investment Rationale
The investment in Aulas AMiGAS was aimed at giving Gray Matters Capital a strong entry in the Latin American education market. As part of the investment, Gray Matters Capital has also gained a stake in start-ups such as SuperProfe, Editorial Aulas AMiGAS, Domoti, QBIC, and La Fundacion Aulas AMiGAS. Gray Matters Capital is also looking to successfully replicate its business model and product application in other developing markets such as India.
AddressHealth provides healthcare facilities and periodic health check-ups for students...
AddressHealth provides healthcare facilities and periodic health check-ups for students in CBSE and ICSE schools. It has also developed a School Health Education Programme for students of classes I to VIII. It also provides mental health programs for the school children.
Founded in March 2010 with the vision of making pediatric primary care continuum possible, AddressHealth with its integrated child health clinics as a base, reaches out to schools, pre-schools and residential groups to address the health of 6 lakh children, by 2020.
Investment Rationale
A market based model for paediatric healthcare that also helps impart school children with the habits they should develop in order to stay healthy. It helps establish strong connect between learning outcomes, physical and emotional well being of children.
EdConnective is a staff outsourcing platform that provides schools with...
EdConnective is a staff outsourcing platform that provides schools with instructional coaches. It imparts bite-sized pedagogies in the form of video coaching to take each teacher through a dynamic coaching process every week grounded in best practices from the highest performing school networks across the nation.
Its virtual platform allows schools to triple their instructional coaching support for a fraction of the cost of hiring full time instructional coaches. Its coaches carry out objective observations that illuminate what students are doing at various moments of instruction. They review recorded lectures of the educator and meet with the educator twice a week to give feedback and recommend improvement on certain skills.
Investment Rationale
The average teacher in the US receives 3 observations or less in an entire year. School leaders want to provide more, but don’t have the time nor the capacity to do so. EdConnective provides 12 observations to each teacher it works with, that is four times the norm. Gray Matters Capital saw the value add brought by EdConnective to schools in terms of increased bandwidth for principals, decreased teacher attrition, increased student engagement and improved learning outcomes.
Instituto Salus is the first nursing institution in Mexico specialized...
Instituto Salus is the first nursing institution in Mexico specialized in training people to become paramedical and geriatric care professionals enabling them to find purposeful, meaningful and well-remunerated jobs in their neighborhoods. It targets women under two age segments – 15-21 and 40-55. Its innovative educational model encourages its students to develop critical thinking, values, social purpose and independence to generate a real change in their quality of life and in the lives of others through the proper application of knowledge.
Investment Rationale
Being a disruptive educational platform enabling women to provide first class health and geriatric care education to those at the bottom of the pyramid in Mexico, Gray Matters Capital saw Insituto Salus as a strategic fit in line with its mission statement of education leading to a meaningful life for 100 million women.
Gray Matters Capital’s investment in Instituto Salus is being used to create two training centers in Mexico City and comes at an appropriate time, when there is a national shortage of nurses, an increase in the elderly population and the need to create opportunities for students to return to the community.
Indian School Finance Company (ISFC) is the world’s first Non-Banking...
Indian School Finance Company (ISFC) is the world’s first Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) to fund private schools, vocational institutes, coaching centers, SMEs in the education domain as well as teachers with an objective to build capacity through infrastructure improvements and thereby enabling students to access quality education.
Having started its operations in Hyderabad in 2008, ISFC today has expanded its presence to over 100 locations spread across 60 districts in 13 states in India, creating social impact with majority of loan disbursements to the Affordable Private Schools (APS) segment. ISFC lends to over …… APS schools which helps them expand access to affordable education to……. Children from low income families .
Investment Rationale
ISFC was incubated by GMC in …… Un met credit demand of huge base of affordable private schools was a barrier in improving the infrastructure and increase enrolment. None of the existing institutions were lending to APS. This presented a huge opportunity for achieving scale , sustainability and impact.
English Edge is the flagship product of LIQVID eLearning Services,...
English Edge is the flagship product of LIQVID eLearning Services, a Noida-based educational software company that uses a unique combination of ‘Content, Platform and Analytics’ to transform English skills of learners and impart soft skills.
Working over more than a decade on English Language education, English Edge has amassed great knowledge and experience in designing programs for proficiency in English Language skills. Its methodology includes trainer software, trainer manual, technical manual, and a student workbook and student practice material available across PCs and mobiles as well as in schools, colleges and centres which will deliver the programme.
Investment Rationale
Language, especially English, still acts as a huge barrier to learning and job placement for individuals coming from the bottom-of-the-pyramid population across the world. English Edge will address this by leveraging its deep expertise, highly effective blended learning methodology and it’s cutting edge technology to provide a highly customized solution.
PAIRIN is a social enterprise software company whose mission is...
PAIRIN is a social enterprise software company whose mission is to make education relevant and hiring equitable. The PAIRIN Readiness Management System is the world’s first industry independent cloud-based solution for integrating soft skills development and matching into any program or company.
Recognized as one of “The Top 50 Coolest New Companies in America” by Business Insider in 2015, winner of the 2017 Denver Chamber of Commerce Start-Up of the Year award and the 2017 Colorado Companies to Watch, PAIRIN continues to lead the skills-based talent pipeline evolution for education and industry. PAIRIN was built upon 60 years of research, 17 years of job performance measurement by the founders, and co-designed with partners from public education, industry, foundations and government to measure the most critical indicators of long-term success in life and career.
Investment Rationale
Gray Matters Capital has observed that soft skills proficiency is proven to be the reason for over 75% employees to experience long term job success. Since these skills are coachable and changeable, it saw PAIRIN’s platform as perfectly suited for online development. The PAIRIN Readiness Management System not only provides a baseline measurement of an individual’s soft skills, but also provides a roadmap and targeted development tools to help on the journey to success. Unlike hard skills or personality tests, everything PAIRIN measures is coachable and changeable.
SpeakWell is India’s No 1 English speaking training company. This...
SpeakWell is India’s No 1 English speaking training company. This professionally managed training firm aims is to enhance personality development and effective communication in its students. It has also diversified into skill development in areas such as retail, banking, sales and e-commerce.
Speakwell has been expanding its network of centers across the country by establishing its franchisee network and has launched a one of its kind virtual training network for Skill development under the brand Skill Capital.
Investment Rationale
The investment was aimed at helping Speakwell upskill 4,000,000 students from the level of 40000 students at the time of funding.
Tenoli is a social enterprise that has dedicated itself to...
Tenoli is a social enterprise that has dedicated itself to the growth of over 850K mom and pop stores in Mexico by serving as a bridge to help them access high quality training, resources and markets to take on the competition from supermarket chains and malls.
The training and consultancy provided helps store owners to improve their stores thereby leading to better footfalls. The first training center established in Mexico City had 350 shops participating. Tenoli also connects them to larger players, thereby enabling them to get group discounts.
Investment Rationale
With nearly 70% of such store owners being women, Tenoli fell in the purview of Gray Matters Capital’s gender lens to back it with funding in order to help sustain livelihoods through imparting of quality training. The investment will be used to replicate the center and scale to 10 centers
Education Catalyst Fund is a US$ 20 Million onshore fund...
Education Catalyst Fund is a US$ 20 Million onshore fund established under the Alternate Investment Fund Category II scheme of the Securities & Exchange Board of India. It is focused on supporting edtech companies that offer solutions to low income families in the education, and jobs & livelihoods areas.
The 8-year close-ended fund managed by impact investment management firm CBA Capital aims at supporting 15 edtech companies in the early part of their lifecycle with seed and series A stage investments. To deliver on its promise of disrupting India’s education, it has till date invested in three companies – Simulanis, Kopykitab and Buddy4Study – all early-stage companies using technology to disrupt traditional business models. Gray Matters Capital is the largest investor in the fund.
Investment Rationale
Focused on education and skilling – two of the most important ingredients for harvesting India’s demographic dividend, the fund has the potential of bringing a positive change in the lives of low income families across the country. With its investees expected to touch over one million low income households over their lifetime, investing in ECF was a powerful pathway to achieving impact at scale.
A $70 mn. sector agnostic fund managed by the Indian...
A $70 mn. sector agnostic fund managed by the Indian Angel Network (IAN), the IAN Fund-I aims to nurture startups in India by attracting the country’s most innovative entrepreneurs and getting them mentored by domestic and international investors besides providing them with global market access. Through this fund, entrepreneurs can raise from $30K right to up $8 Mn during its 10 year span.
Investment Rationale
As a limited partner in the fund, Gray Matters Capital expects the Indian Angel Network (IAN) to direct its share of investment only into early stage disruptive Indian education enterprises.
A $75 Million Off-Grid Solar Energy & Financial Access Senior...
A $75 Million Off-Grid Solar Energy & Financial Access Senior Debt Fund I managed by SIMA (Social Investment Managers and Advisors) provides senior debt to innovative companies that finance, manufacture, and/or distribute individual solar home systems in Africa. SIMA’s fund is managed by some of the longest serving social asset managers with an excellent track record in the impact investing sector. It has managed 13 funds totaling $630mm, investing in 50+ countries with less than 1.7% losses.
Investment Rationale
As much as 85% of the population in Africa do not have access to electricity and are forced to burn fossil fuels for light, which has a detrimental effect on both the environment as well as the health of women and children.
Compared to burning kerosene, solar lighting results in improved health, longer business and educational hours, improved safety and quality of life without hampering the environment. With demand for off-grid solar growing at 55% per year, and the credit needs of off grid solar providers estimated by Bloomberg New Energy Finance at $3 billion annually by 2020, Gray Matters Capital considers this investment to tick the checkboxes of social and financial returns.