Pearson Ventures

Educational technology plays a pivotal role in driving and enabling the revolution in post-secondary learning

Higher EdTech

Springboard is an online learning platform founded in 2013 that offers career-focused bootcamps and courses in various tech fields. The company provides mentor-led programs designed to help students transition into in-demand tech careers such as data science, software engineering, UX/UI design, cybersecurity, and machine learning. Springboard's curriculum is developed in collaboration with industry professionals and focuses on practical, project-based learning. Students spend the majority of their time working on real-world projects to build portfolios showcasing their skills to potential employers. The programs are fully online and self-paced, typically taking 6-9 months to complete with a time commitment of 15-25 hours per week. Springboard aims to make tech education more accessible through flexible learning options and affordable pricing compared to traditional degree programs. The company offers a job guarantee for many of its courses, promising students will land a job in their field within six months of graduating or receive a full tuition refund. As of September 2023, Springboard had helped over 20,000 students globally build skills to transform their careers.
Key customers and partnerships
Springboard partners with several universities to offer its programs through their extended studies or global campus divisions. In September 2023, the company launched a new machine learning engineering and AI bootcamp in collaboration with the University of California San Diego Extended Studies, University of Massachusetts Global, and University of Maryland Global Campus. Springboard also works with corporations to provide upskilling and reskilling programs for employees. In October 2022, Amazon selected Springboard as an education partner for its Career Choice program to offer data analytics and software engineering training to Amazon employees. Springboard reports that about 92% of its job-qualified graduates who reported receiving an offer received it within 12 months of completing their program, from companies such as Amazon, Boeing, IBM, and J.P. Morgan.

Knowledge to Practice (K2P) is a company specializing in professional development and learning solutions for healthcare professionals and organizations. The company's core offering is a Learning Experience Platform (LXP), which was the first of its kind in the medical education sector. K2P's approach focuses on contextual learning tailored to individual needs, aiming to enhance the capabilities of healthcare professionals while optimizing organizational outcomes. The platform operates on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, emphasizing data-driven and product-centric strategies. K2P's LXP has achieved a 95% year-over-year retention rate, indicating strong user satisfaction and engagement. The company's services extend beyond traditional learning methods, integrating development directly into team dynamics to foster growth and operational excellence collectively.
Key customers and partnerships
K2P has collaborated with several major institutions in the healthcare sector, including Johns Hopkins Medicine, American College of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, Stanford Medicine, BlueCross BlueShield, HCA, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, UPMC, Advocate, Mt Sinai, UConn Health, Wellstar, Emory, and Intermountain healthcare. The company has also worked with Deloitte in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating its international reach. These partnerships span across various types of healthcare organizations, from academic medical centers to insurance providers and healthcare systems, indicating K2P's broad appeal and applicability within the healthcare industry.

Holberton School is a software engineering institution that offers an innovative approach to training aspiring software developers. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2016, Holberton provides a project-based and peer learning curriculum focused on hands-on experience rather than traditional lectures. The school's 20-month program covers foundations of computer science and software engineering in the first nine months, followed by specialization in areas like machine learning, full-stack development, or augmented/virtual reality. Holberton's curriculum emphasizes practical skills in coding, software design, critical thinking, and problem-solving to prepare students for careers as software engineers. The school does not require prior coding experience for admission. In January 2024, the Holberton campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma rebranded as Atlas School to operate independently and better serve local employer needs. Holberton has expanded to multiple locations across the US and internationally.
Key customers and partnerships
Holberton School has partnerships with major technology companies to support student career development. Graduates have found employment at firms including Google, Tesla, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, and IBM. The school works with local organizations in its campus locations to create opportunities for students and serve community needs. For example, in Tulsa, Holberton (now Atlas School) partners with groups like Atento Capital and Tulsa Innovation Labs to connect graduates with job opportunities in the growing local tech sector. The George Kaiser Family Foundation was also a key partner in establishing the Tulsa campus in 2020.

Acadeum is a course-sharing platform that enables colleges and universities to expand their academic offerings and support student progress. Founded in 2016, the company's technology allows institutions to share online courses and resources across national and regional networks. As of January 2024, Acadeum's network includes more than 460 higher education institutions in the US. The platform helps colleges broaden access to courses students need, keeping them on track for timely graduation while also generating new revenue streams for institutions.
Acadeum's core service allows home colleges to pay for their students to take online courses from teaching institutions within the network. This model helps fill empty seats in courses at teaching institutions while providing students at home colleges access to classes they might not otherwise be able to take. The company's technology facilitates seamless course sharing across individual colleges as well as consortia like the Council of Independent Colleges Online Course Sharing Consortium and the Southern Regional Education Board's HBCU-MSI Course-Sharing Consortium.
In January 2024, Acadeum launched Skills Marketplace, a new product offering access to over 380 online workforce-aligned credentials. This expansion allows institutions to offer non-credit courses and credentials to current students, alumni, faculty, staff, and local employer partners. The Skills Marketplace includes offerings from providers such as MedCerts, Coursera, Pearson Certiport, and Muzzy Lane.
Acadeum's platform is designed to help institutions improve retention and completion rates, launch new programs, and attract new learners with workforce-aligned curricula. As of October 2021, more than 28,000 students across over 500 institutions had completed courses through the Acadeum network. The company positions its services as a way for colleges to adapt to changing student needs and expectations, particularly for non-traditional and working students seeking flexible degree pathways.
Key customers and partnerships
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EdTech: Corporate Learning

Talespin is the developer of Runway, a proprietary extended reality (XR) platform which it uses to create virtual reality (VR)-based training solutions for businesses. Immersive learning through the use of technologies such as VR, AR, and XR has been found to be productive among corporates. Talespin’s customers include Accenture, AIA Hong Kong &amp; Macau, Farmers Insurance, Go1, Jobs for the Future, and 10 large employers within the Fortune 500.In April 2021, Talespin expanded its off-the-shelf learning content library and added desktop content streaming support for its platform. The desktop streaming technology allows users to stream learning modules on web browsers. In May 2021, the company launched CoPilot Designer, a no-code authoring tool for corporates to develop their own immersive soft skills learning content. In March 2023, Talespin partnered with Pearson, a learning solutions provider, to launch an XR-learning product called <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16286">"Where'd Everybody Go?, </a>" which is designed as a virtual storyworld, featuring virtual human simulations and an interactive narrative that resembles a role-playing video game (RPG).In March 2024, Talespin was <a href="https://">acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand,</a> a firm specializing in learning and talent experience solutions, to diversify its service offerings. Funding and financialsIn October 2022, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13733">received a strategic investment of undisclosed value </a>from WestRiver Group (WRG). As part of the agreement, Talespin <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13733">acquired the “Pioneer Adaptive Learning” </a>platform from Singularity Group, as well as its team of employees and advisors. It planned to use the funds, its new acquisition, and its relationship with the Singularity Group to build an ecosystem to support immersive learning solutions. The round follows its <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8592?industryIds=46">USD 20 million Series C funding </a>in February 2022, co-led by SEEK Investments and Allomer Capital.

Acadeum is a developer of the Academic Sharing Platform. Acadeum is previously known as College Consortium. It offers a software platform that allows universities to share online courses. Acadeum supports the formation of course-sharing consortia for institutions of higher education, including the Council of Independent Colleges, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, and Digitex. It was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Talespin is building the spatial computing platform to power talent development and skills mobility for the future of work. Founded in 2015, the company leverages its proprietary platform to offer enterprise customers, partners, and individuals an end-to-end solution for creating, distributing, and measuring the impact of immersive learning content. Talespin is building a future of work where the distance between learning and execution is collapsed, enabling people to explore unique career paths that meet the needs of both businesses and individuals.

Holberton School is a project-based alternative to college for the next generation of software engineers. It offers a two-year higher-education program to become a full-stack software engineer. Through project-based and peer learning, Holberton students unleash their creativity and naturally learn how to work as a team to solve practical challenges. Its curriculum is 100% hands-on, challenging, and exciting. Holberton students create many programs and systems; they work on industry-level projects and build their own applications. Holberton School was founded in 2016 by Sylvain Kalache and Julien Barbier with its first campus in San Francisco. Today, it operates 3 other campuses namely in New Haven, Bogotá, and Medellín.

Springboard is an online learning platform that prepares students for the tech industry’s sought-after careers. With expert mentorship from professionals, a bleeding-edge curriculum, and a network of support from day one, they make sure students have everything they need to excel in their program and in their next job. The platform's one-size-fits-all approach is made for working professionals who are ready to level up or make a career shift. And the tuition-back guarantee means students can take charge and invest in themselves. Springboard's data science career track comes with a job guarantee, ensuring students secure a job within six months of graduation or get a full refund. The platform's self-paced courses offer students the opportunity to develop job-ready skills that they display in an industry-worthy capstone or portfolio project.

Knowledge to Practice catalyzes and accelerates progress in postgraduate medical education. It offers self-directed learning solutions, self-assessment tools reveal knowledge gaps, content modules can be reviewed repeatedly, and more.  The company was founded in 2014 and is based in Bethesda, United States.

With an initial capital commitment of $50M over three years, Pearson Ventures will invest in companies building new market opportunities using innovative business models, future technologies, and new educational experiences. While Pearson Ventures will pursue competitive financial returns, equally important is its ability to collect shareable insights and drive organizational learning to help future-proof the company. As a result, they will be doing things a bit differently than a typical venture fund.

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