United States: education and edtech news
Universities, edtech companies and education investors in the United States: major gifts and new institutes, admissions and testing policy, funding rounds, public listings and mergers.
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2026
Carnegie Mellon announces $3 billion gift and plans for a new Miami campus
Carnegie Mellon University announced on September 30, 2026 a $3 billion gift from Ken Griffin, founder and chief executive of the investment firm Citadel. The gift…
Reach Capital closes $265 million fifth fund for AI in learning, health and work
Reach Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, announced on August 24, 2026 that it had closed its fifth fund, Reach V, at $265 million. The fund will invest in…
EdVisorly raises $13.3 million Series A for AI college transfer platform
EdVisorly, a Los Angeles startup that applies artificial intelligence to college transfer and admissions paperwork, has raised a $13.3 million Series A round…
2025
Coursera and Udemy agree to combine in all-stock merger
Coursera and Udemy, two US-listed online learning companies, announced on December 17, 2025 that they had signed a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock…
Princeton to require SAT or ACT scores again from the 2027-28 admission cycle
Princeton University's Office of Admission announced on October 9, 2025 that it will once more require SAT or ACT scores from undergraduate applicants. The requirement…
MagicSchool raises $45 million Series B for AI tools for teachers
MagicSchool, a Denver company that builds generative AI tools for teachers and students, announced a $45 million Series B round on February 11, 2025. Valor Equity…
2024
Bain Capital agrees to acquire PowerSchool in $5.6 billion transaction
PowerSchool Holdings, a Folsom, California provider of cloud software for K-12 schools, announced on June 7, 2024 that it had agreed to be acquired by the private…
Techstars relaunches Workforce Development Accelerator with 12 startups
Techstars announced on June 3, 2024 the relaunch of its Workforce Development Accelerator and named the 12 startups selected for the 2024 class. The three-month…
Arizona State University announces collaboration with OpenAI on ChatGPT Enterprise
Arizona State University announced on January 18, 2024 that it had entered a collaboration with OpenAI, the company that develops ChatGPT, to bring ChatGPT Enterprise…
2023
Johns Hopkins to create data science and AI institute with 110 new faculty posts
Johns Hopkins University announced on August 3, 2023 that it would create a new institute for data science and artificial intelligence, led by its Whiting School of…
Khan Academy launches pilot of Khanmigo, a GPT-4 AI tutor
Khan Academy, the nonprofit online learning organization, introduced Khanmigo on March 14, 2023. The experimental tool is built on OpenAI's GPT-4 model, which was…
2022
MIT reinstates SAT/ACT requirement for undergraduate applicants
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced on March 28, 2022 that it would again require undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores in future…
Edorer joins EduSpaze accelerator and gains backing from Expert DOJO
Edorer, a US-based education technology company, was named on February 22, 2022 as one of nine startups in the fourth cohort of EduSpaze, the Singapore edtech…
College Board announces the SAT will move to a digital format
College Board announced on January 25, 2022 that the SAT would be delivered digitally, ending the paper-and-pencil format of the college admissions test. The digital…
Handshake raises $200 million Series F at $3.5 billion valuation
Handshake, a San Francisco careers network for college students and recent graduates, announced a $200 million Series F round on January 19, 2022. The financing valued…
2021
Harvard launches Kempner Institute for intelligence research with $500 million gift
Harvard University on December 7, 2021 launched the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, a university-wide initiative that links…
Duolingo prices Nasdaq initial public offering at $102 per share
Duolingo, the Pittsburgh-based language learning company, priced its initial public offering on July 27, 2021 at $102.00 per share. The offering covered 5,106,113…
2U agrees to acquire edX from Harvard and MIT for $800 million
2U, a publicly traded provider of online degree programs for universities, announced on June 29, 2021 that it would acquire edX, the online course platform created by…
2020
Outschool raises $45 million Series B led by Lightspeed
Outschool, a San Francisco marketplace for live online classes aimed at school-age children, announced a $45 million Series B round on September 18, 2020. Lightspeed…
Owl Ventures closes $585 million across two education technology funds
Owl Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in education technology, announced on September 1, 2020 that it had closed $585 million across two new funds. The…
UC Berkeley receives anonymous $252 million gift for new data science building
The University of California, Berkeley announced on February 29, 2020 that an anonymous donor had given $252 million toward construction of a new building, known as the…
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