Guild Education Hits $1 Billion Valuation
The female-led education startup closed its Series D round.
Guild Education is the latest company to join the exclusive unicorn club this year. The firm announced it has closed its Series D round, pulling in $157 million in the process.
The latest round includes investors from Iconiq Capital and Lead Edge Capital. Former American Express CEO Ken Chenault and Laurene Powell Jobs Emerson Collective also joined the roster.
Previous investors have also included Bessemer Ventures, Workday Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Felicis Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Next Play Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Harrison Metal.
About Guild Education
Stanford graduates Rachel Carlson and Brittany Stitch founded Guild Education in 2015. The firm connects employers with online education programs at colleges across the country. Universities include Purdue Global and the University of Central Florida.
The firm works with employers like Chipotle, Walmart, and Disney to offer education to employees without an advanced degree. Roughly 400,000 working adults have used these programs to obtain trade diplomas, certificates, high school completion programs, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
“Most of our companies see an ROI on the employee investment within the first year or two,” CEO Rachel Carlson said in an interview with TechCrunch in 2018.
“Here’s why: on an incremental basis, our programs simply need to cost less than the cost of losing a high performing employee and hiring and training their replacement. We accomplish that by partnering with affordable, nonprofit universities and focusing with them on dual retention: helping employees succeed at school and at work… Companies with frontline workforces struggle with annual turnover rates well above 50%. So, for our companies, a 4-year retention rate is a phenomenal outcome. They’re thrilled to see that employee move on to their next job after completing a degree.”
Finally, the company is one of only three female-led firms on the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100 list.
Related: Preqin Executive Report: Less than 12% of Senior Roles in Alternatives Are Occupied by Women
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