Edquity, a student financial support platform, has collected $2.4m in its seed round which will extend its emergency cash grant and social services referral technology.
The round was led by ECMC Foundation, with additional investments coming from the Omidyar Network, Spring Point Partners, the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, and Michelson 20MM Foundation.
Additionally, WGU Labs contributed to the round through its new seed fund and will oversee a research study to assess the impact of Edquity on Western Governors University’s student population in 2020.
Powered by the new funding, US-based Edquity is looking to expand through its national pipeline of colleges and universities.
Edquity offers a research-driven service supporting students during times of insecurity and they need emergency aid. The mobile app enables a user to monitor their daily financial needs and spending, with it capable of informing the student how many days until they will run out of money.
To help students stay in education, the app automatically creates personalized budgets and compares financial aid rewards.
Approximately three million college students drop out each year due to a time sensitive financial crisis, the FinTech claims. A number of other issues impact their lives and ability to stay in education such as food and housing insecurity. Edquity aims to give them support to stay in school.
In October, the FinTech recently released its evidence-based technology to administer emergency aid and predictively refer students to emergency resources in the Dallas County Community College District after it was hit by tornadoes.
Edquity CEO David Helene said, “While only the public sector can address the root causes of poverty, we’re showing at Edquity that we are transforming emergency aid provision to stopgap some of the symptoms, and are doing so in such a way that not only manifests a win-win-win revenue model but also presents a massive long-term growth opportunity.
“Building a company that is laser-focused on putting the needs of the student first is hard work and requires a fierce commitment to our values, and we’re thrilled to partner with truly catalytic mission-aligned investors who can help us support postsecondary students of all ages and walks of life and realize our market opportunity in the process.”
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