ImpactAlpha, July 27 – San Francisco-based RaiseMe aims to incentivize high school students’ academic performance and keep them on a path to college by offering micro-scholarships for good grades and developmental extracurricular activities.
“Billions of dollars are awarded each year to help students pay for college, but historically kids don’t know much about this aid until after they’ve decided where they want to go,” RaiseMe’s Preston Silverman said, adding that this can be discouraging “for students from low-income communities who may be scared of the sticker price of college.”
RaiseMe has partnered with 300 higher education institutions to provide $2 billion in small, incremental college scholarships to 1.2 million high school students. A third of the students RaiseMe has served are minority students or would be first generation colleges students.
The startup has now raised $15 million in Series B funding for itself. The round was led by Teamworthy Ventures with backing from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Salesforce Ventures, and Strada Education Network. The three-year-old company has been backed in previous rounds by First Round Capital and Owl Ventures.
