How many investments has ETS Strategic Capital made?

ETS Strategic Capital has 23 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited.

What stage does ETS Strategic Capital invest at?

ETS Strategic Capital invests at the Seed, Series B, Series C, Growth, Late Stage stages.

What sectors does ETS Strategic Capital focus on?

ETS Strategic Capital focuses on AI & Machine Learning, EdTech, Future of Work, HR Tech.

Where is ETS Strategic Capital located?

ETS Strategic Capital is headquartered in Princeton, US.

Who does ETS Strategic Capital co-invest with?

ETS Strategic Capital most often shares deals with Owl Ventures, Fresco Capital, Sprint Vc, among 52 tracked co-investors.

ETS Strategic Capital

Corporate VC

Princeton · Seed–Late Stage · 12 people tracked

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Find your way into ETS Strategic Capital

362 people in our graph share verified history with the ETS Strategic Capital team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Luca Ferraresiunlockedknows Smit Desai · together at SDA Bocconi (overlapped)

×2knows the team · via The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

knows the team · via SDA Bocconi

×7knows the team · via Indian School of Business

knows the team · via Eduvue

✨ Fox Verdict

Investment thesis

ETS Capital, the strategic capital arm of ETS, invests in companies advancing education and human progress. Its equity focus typically targets Series B, Series C, and later-stage companies with proven product/market fit and established business models that seek growth capital to scale, though select earlier-stage deals are possible. Alongside equity investing, the firm pursues middle-market mergers and acquisitions and forms growth partnerships such as joint ventures, channel/distribution agreements, and IP licensing or technology-transfer relationships. Its portfolio spans edtech, workforce development, assessment, and talent-decision platforms, reflecting a mission to fuel growth and better outcomes across learning and employment.

Invests inAI & Machine Learning EdTech Future of Work HR Tech Europe Global India North America Princeton United States

Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.

Stage

Seed–Late Stage

Princeton, NJ, US

Instruments

Equity

Tracked investments

Unicorns

Acquisitions

Team · 12 people

from the firm's website & public directories

Emal Dusst· Managing Director & Head of ETS Capital

Managing Director and Head of ETS Capital. Previously a senior investment professional at Sterling Partners leading global education and workforce deals, helped found Cintana Education, and held senior roles at Laureate Education and Saint-Gobain. He serves or has served on boards of several education companies including Coursera, Memorang, Suraasa, and Orijin.

Malone Ma· Principal

Principal and board observer at portfolio company Orijin. Previously led the portfolio company management division of HNA Group North America and was a senior director at T.A. McKay & Co. He holds the CFA designation.

Mike May· Principal

Principal and board observer at portfolio company Memorang. Previously an Investment Banking Director at Solomon Partners and a VP in the TMT Investment Banking Group at TD Cowen.

Mike Rossmann· Principal

Principal who previously was a VP at Wells Fargo Securities executing M&A transactions and worked in strategy consulting at Cartesian.

Daniel Pollak· Senior Associate

Senior Associate who previously worked in technology investment banking at Oppenheimer, advising companies on mergers, acquisitions, and capital raises.

Isabelle Hau· Advisory Board - AI & Learning Innovation

Advisory board member; Executive Director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning with over 20 years building global AI and learning innovation platforms.

Jonathan Lau· Advisory Board - Product & Strategy

Advisory board member; co-founder of workforce education provider InStride with over 20 years of global edtech leadership.

Melanie Clayton· Executive Assistant

Executive Assistant who has been with ETS for over 14 years, previously serving in scoring and reporting operations and other administrative roles.

Pankaj Bansal· Advisory Board - Workforce & Skilling

Advisory board member; co-founder and managing partner of Caret Capital with over 25 years in workforce readiness and education-to-employment partnerships.

Smit Desai· Director· Mumbai, Maharashtra, Indiain

Director with over a decade of experience in investment banking, corporate development, and strategy. Board observer at portfolio company LeverageEdu; previously led strategy and corporate development at a Yubi subsidiary and worked in corporate development at upGrad and investment banking at EY.

Tony Chan· Advisory Board - Global STEM & Higher Ed

Advisory board member; former President of KAUST and HKUST with over 30 years driving global STEM innovation and higher education transformation.

Farhat Siddiqui· Advisor· New York City Metropolitan Areain

Farhat Siddiqui leads AI platform adoption and governance at Genmab, where he has scaled ChatGPT and other large language models from a pilot program to enterprise-wide deployment across multiple business functions. His background includes leadership roles in engineering, data, and product organizations at ETS and Meta, as well as early work in trading systems at Citi. He holds a statistics degree and master's in computer science, and independently operates Nuven.ai to research applications of frontier AI models.

What they invest in

from 18 of 23 portfolio companies

EdTech ×17SaaS ×12AI & Machine Learning ×7Enterprise Software ×5HR Tech ×4Future of Work ×3Marketplaces ×3Fintech ×2

HQs:United States×6India×4Canada×1China×1

Who they back

founder profiles across 14 portfolio companies

50%

solo founders

7 of 14 mapped founding teams

74%

repeat founders

of 19 founders with career history

Founding team size:solo founder×72 founders×43 founders×3

Where their founders studiedfrom 16 founders with education data

Conestoga College ×2INSEAD ×2

What their founders studiedfrom 14 founders with field-of-study data

Business & Management ×6Engineering ×4Computer Science ×3Humanities ×2

Where their founders worked beforefrom 19 founders with career history

KPMG ×2

Investments · 23 tracked

founders shown can be your intro path

By year:2024 · 1 2018 · 12 dated

Suraasasuraasa.com in✓ verified

Suraasa is a teacher training and development platform that provides structured pedagogy training, career roadmap guidance, and professional networking opportunities for teachers.

EdTechFuture of WorkHR TechNoida, IN

Rishabh Khanna(Founder)in

Co-investorsReach Capital Sprint Vc SucSEED Indovation Supermorpheus NB Ventures

ApplyBoard Inc.applyboard.com in

ApplyBoard operates a platform connecting international students with educational institutions across Canada, the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, and Germany.

AI & Machine LearningB2B MarketplacesEdTechMarketplacesSaaSLondon, CA

Meti Basiri(Founder)in Martin Basiri(Co-Founder and Former Chief Executive Officer)in Massi Basiri(President and Co-Founder)in

Co-investors500 Global Artiman Ventures BDC Growth Venture Fund Candou Ventures Celtic House Asia Partners Drive Capital +10 more

BenchPrepbenchprep.com in

BenchPrep is a learning management system for associations, credentialing bodies, and training companies that delivers exam prep, continuing education, and professional certifications.

EdTechEnterprise SoftwareSaaS

Ashish Rangnekar(Founder)in Ujjwal Gupta(Founder)in

Co-investorsNew Enterprise Associates (NEA)NewView Capital Owl Ventures Jump Capital Lightbank Revolution

Class Technologiesclass.com in 𝕏Dec 2018

Class is a virtual classroom platform built on Microsoft Teams that adds interactive teaching and learning tools to enhance live synchronous instruction.

EdTechFuture of WorkSaaSNew York, US

Michael Chasen(Founder)inTaryn Toomey(Executive Officer, Director)

Co-investorsMaven Ventures Owl Ventures SoftBank Vision Fund Structural Capital SoftBank Group

click herecollegedekho.com in 𝕏

CollegeDekho is an online platform that helps high school students identify and apply to colleges in India through personalized counseling, college information, and a unified application process.

EdTechMarketplacesBengaluru, IN

Co-investorsMan Capital Trifecta Capital Advisors

Degreeddegreed.com in 𝕏

Degreed provides an enterprise learning experience platform that helps organizations collect, understand, and develop workforce skills through AI-driven learning experiences.

EdTechEnterprise SoftwareHR TechSaaSSan Francisco, US

David Blake(CEO)inDavid Wiley(Executive Officer, Director)in

BoardChris McCarthy(Director)Brandon Tidwell(Director)in

Co-investorsAcadian Ventures Management, Llc BYU Cougar Capital Contour Venture Partners Elevate Innovation Partners Founders Circle Capital GSV Ventures +12 more

GradSchoolMatchgradschoolmatch.com in

GradSchoolMatch provides articles and resources to help prospective graduate, business, and law students find programs, understand financing options, and prepare for admissions applications.

EdTech

Harverharver.com in 𝕏

Harver is a talent assessment platform that helps enterprise organizations make hiring decisions using predictive assessments and automated solutions grounded in industrial-organizational and cognitive science.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareHR TechSaaS

Co-investorsCamden Partners Acrobator Ventures

Impacter Pathwayimpacterpathway.com in

IMPACTER builds an education platform focused on character assessment and measuring skills like purpose and future-ready abilities for K-12 schools, students, and educators.

AI & Machine LearningEdTechSaaS

Danny Byun(Co-Founder & Co-CEO)in Dr. Joshua Arnold(Co-Founder & Co-CEO)in

Kira Talentkiratalent.com in 𝕏

Kira Talent offers a holistic admissions platform for higher education programs, combining on-demand timed video and written assessments with structured live interview technology to help schools evaluate applicants' skills and traits.

EdTechSaaS

Emilie Cushman(Founder)in

Co-investorsBisk Ventures Relay Ventures Venture Ontario

Leverage Eduleverageedu.com in 𝕏

Leverage Edu is an India-based study-abroad platform that helps students pursue global higher education, offering services such as university admissions guidance, education loans through a financial services arm, and student accommodation.

AI & Machine LearningEdTechFintechFuture of WorkMarketplaces

Akshay Chaturvedi(Founder & CEO)in

Co-investorsLVX Ventures Spring Marketing Capital Sprint Vc Trifecta Capital Advisors NB Ventures

Memorangmemorang.com in 𝕏

Memorang provides a platform for organizations to launch customized, AI-driven learning experiences across any subject.

AI & Machine LearningEdTechSaaSLos Angeles, US

Dr. Yermie Cohen(Founder & CEO)Eric Martin(Chief Revenue Officer)

MPOWER Financingmpowerfinancing.com in 𝕏

MPOWER Financing provides loans and financial support to international students pursuing education in the United States and Canada, using a credit model based on future potential rather than credit history.

EdTechFintechImpact & Social GoodWashington, US

Manu Smadja inMike Davis in

Co-investorsBuilders + Backers Dreamit Ventures Fresco Capital K Street Capital VARIV Community Investment Management +2 more

MTCmastery.org in 𝕏

Mastery.org operates the Mastery Transcript, a competency-based alternative to traditional grade transcripts, and runs a consortium of schools that use it.

EdTechSaaS

Matt Sornson(Founder)inAaron Rasmussen(Co-founder)inScott Looney(Founder of MTC)in

Co-investorsIncubate US

Orijinorijin.works in

Co-investorsECMC Group

Pippletpipplet.com in 𝕏

Pipplet is a web-based language assessment platform that tests the oral and written proficiency of job candidates, employees, and learners across more than 40 languages using human-graded, real-world tests.

EdTechEnterprise SoftwareHR TechSaaS

PSIpsiexams.com in 𝕏

PSI provides testing and assessment services, including exam delivery, statistical analysis of testing data, and security measures such as audits, inspections, and monitoring to detect fraud and vulnerabilities across the assessment lifecycle.

EdTechEnterprise SoftwareGovTechSaaS

Co-investorsBreakthrough Energy Ventures Robot Ventures SV Angel Valkyrie

Upgradupgrad.com in 𝕏

upGrad is an online higher education company offering degrees, certifications, bootcamps, and study abroad programs, as well as recruitment services, in partnership with universities.

AI & Machine LearningEdTech

Ronnie ScrewvalainMayank Kumarin Phalgun Kompalli in

Co-investorsKaizenvest Sapien Ventures / Sapien Group IFC Temasek

Vericantvericant.com in 𝕏

Vericant is a third-party interview and assessment service for international applicants seeking admission to academic institutions.

AI & Machine LearningEdTechSaaSBeijing, CN

Guy Sivan(Co-Founder & CEO)in

Co-investorsFresco Capital Shunwei Capital

Other

Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.

EduvueOpenclassrooms Current AllPymetricsWheebox

Rows marked “SEC filing” are inferred from directors named on the company's SEC Form D — public regulatory data, not a portfolio list published by the firm.

Portfolio news

latest coverage across their companies

Physical Superintelligence Raises $58M in Seed Funding

PSI · finsmes.com · Sep 2, 2026

ETS Capital Invests in Impacter Pathway — Validating Human Skills Analytics as a New Category in K–12 Measurement - Impacter Pathway

Impacter Pathway · impacterpathway.com · Jun 12, 2026

Datapile

Leverage Edu · datapile.co · May 27, 2026

MPOWER Financing Fills Graduate Funding Gap with New $100,000 Graduate Success Loan | | The Daily News

MPOWER Financing · galvnews.com · Mar 17, 2026

MTC Awards Funding for 2026 MOBEC Grant Program Proposals - Missouri Technology Corporation

MTC · missouritechnology.com · Jan 29, 2026

Pipplet shutdown: What are your language assessment alternatives? - Elao

Pipplet · elao-test.com · Aug 27, 2025

Frequently asked questions

How many investments has ETS Strategic Capital made?: ETS Strategic Capital has 23 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited.
What stage does ETS Strategic Capital invest at?: ETS Strategic Capital invests at the Seed, Series B, Series C, Growth, Late Stage stages.
What sectors does ETS Strategic Capital focus on?: ETS Strategic Capital focuses on AI & Machine Learning, EdTech, Future of Work, HR Tech.
Where is ETS Strategic Capital located?: ETS Strategic Capital is headquartered in Princeton, US.
Who does ETS Strategic Capital co-invest with?: ETS Strategic Capital most often shares deals with Owl Ventures, Fresco Capital, Sprint Vc, among 52 tracked co-investors.

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