Dealflow | November 6, 2018

Women-led Kinvolved raises $1.5 million to reduce student absenteeism

Roodgally Senatus
ImpactAlpha Editor

Roodgally Senatus

ImpactAlpha, November 6 – More than 6.5 million students miss a month or more of school each year. Almost half of high-school students that dropout cite missing too many school days as a reason, according to Gates Foundation funded research.

Kinvolved, founded by Miriam Altman and Alexandra Meis in New York City, aims to improve student attendance through its Kinvo app, which allows teachers to communicate directly with parents about their child’s daily attendance. Kinvolved partner high schools have seen a 13x increase in average daily attendance, according to the firm’s 2016-2017 impact report.

Kinvolved has closed a $1.54 million seed round led by the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, an early-stage investor with 136 social enterprises in its portfolio. Kinvolved will use the funds to support sales growth and product research and development, and offer better services to customers.

Other investors in the round include Twilio.org Impact Fund, New York Ventures, Excell Technology Ventures, GingerBread Capital, and u2i.