Entangled Group Inks $15M

The round was led by global investors Hereditas Capital Management and TDM Partners of Hong Kong and leading education investor Rethink Education.

"When it comes to education, the venture capital model is broken," said Nick Hammerschlag, president of Entangled Group and former member of the investment teams at growth equity firm General Atlantic and Openview Partners. "We're creating businesses from the ground-up through a collaborative approach, at a moment where the intersection of education and employment is experiencing unprecedented dynamism."

Entangled Group's unique model draws upon hands-on experience working with colleges and universities, as well as employers, through its consulting team to identify demand for new and emergent solutions. Earlier this year, the firm launched PathStream in collaboration with Facebook to close skills gaps with untapped talent from community colleges. Entangled-backed ReUp Education helps colleges re-enroll adults with some college credit but no degree. In 2017, the firm exited Entangled-created startup Practice, the video-based skill development platform acquired by Instructure (INST).

"The frustrations of education entrepreneurs and investors represent two sides of the same coin. Investors tend to shy away from the complexity of a market typified by resistance to change and hyper-fragmentation. Entrepreneurs, in turn, struggle to find investors who appreciate both the magnitude of not just the challenge, but opportunity, in education," said Paul Freedman, CEO of Entangled Group. "We've flipped the venture model on its head by creating businesses in response to — and in collaboration with — customers, instead of building solutions in search of problems."

In recent years, the firm's participation in early stage investments has served as a signal to Silicon Valley's venture capital firms looking to enter the education and training market. The Entangled portfolio includes Andela, launched by 2U founder Jeremy Johnson, which helps employers develop tech talent in Africa; microscholarship platform Raise.me (backed by Owl Ventures and Redpoint); and Guild Education (backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Redpoint), which helps employers like Disney, WalMart, and Chipotle provide frontline employees with educational benefits, including college tuition assistance.

About Entangled Group: The Entangled Group is a venture studio pioneering an entirely new approach to the development and scale of education and workforce technology that blends investing, company-building and consulting. As an evolution of the venture capital model, our venture studio approach enables us to not only invest seed capital, but actually launch and operate our own businesses directly aligned with the needs of the education ecosystem. Our company creation efforts are focused on helping the education ecosystem accelerate its transformation from its roots in the industrial economy to optimizing for a knowledge economy and the future of work.