Although women have made significant progress in the tech industry in recent years, there is still much to be done before we can achieve a truly equal state of affairs in terms of workforce numbers, remuneration, and product development. Entity Academy, an edtech startup that provides training in data science, software development, mentoring, and finally job coaching to women, has raised $100 million. This comes on the heels of strong business growth and a desire to increase that number.
Students will use the financing to pay for tuition at Entity Academy, which is usually $15,000. Leif, a startup that offers financing services to edtech platforms, is providing the funding. Leif can offer income share agreements to their students (also known as ISAs), which allow students to not have to repay tuition loans until they find work.
Entity's founder and CEO, Jennifer Schwab, said that the latest funding is a prelude to the company's first traditional VC-led equity round.
Entity doesn't create e-learning content but aggregates online courses on data science, software engineering, and technology sales. These courses range in length from 24 to 33 week and are offered by providers that include Springboard, Lambda School, Columbia University, and others that Entity tailors to its students.
Entity's technology play goes beyond the fact that Entity's curriculum is tech-focused. Entity, like any edtech startup would, also relies heavily on the data it has accumulated to develop its business strategy.
This data is not only based on student feedback and student outcomes but also other channels. Entity Mag's content arm has been quite popular on social media, with more than 1.1million followers across Instagram and Facebook. This makes it a major channel for engagement and future students.
Entity takes all of this information into consideration to curate its courses and the content that goes into them. It also considers how to best supplement those learnings. Today, Entity courses include targeted mentoring by people in the tech industry as well as career coaching to help you find a job.
Schwab stated in an interview that the sweet spot for entities is a bifurcated one.
Schwab stated that it is women who are either brand new (typically between 19 and 23 years old) or returning to work or thinking about their career (typically between 30-39 years old). Entity is attracting women from both these categories because they are interested in technical jobs and higher-ranking positions, but lack the expertise to do so. Most likely, they have studied humanities and other non-technical subjects at college. They don't usually have the support they need in their workplaces to retrain in order to be able to pursue more technical jobs.
The diversity of those women is another challenge, but Entity can help them overcome it. 55% of those aged 19-23 are women of color, while 62% of those aged 30-39 are of African descent. Entity describes itself as a comprehensive strategy that provides tools for women to help them overcome all the challenges they face in securing jobs in tech.
Schwab said that many of our students wouldn't have chosen STEM programs in the past. Therefore, we are creating skills from the ground up.
Entity has increased its financial support for students who are 80% dependent on financing to cover the cost of the course.
The course has been completed by around 400 people, nearly all of them women, since 2016. It was originally a shorter program (six weeks), that required students to attend in person and cost $5,000. With many of the courses being eight-months long and all online, this means more people and higher costs. Schwab stated that the course has 300 more students and is on track for 1,500 next year.
Growth of entities has been influenced by bigger edtech trends and the future of work. Covid-19 placed a lot of expectations on the elearning industry. Companies creating tools to teach people from remote locations suddenly found themselves in high demand. This was due to the fact that traditional learning environments had to be virtualized, as well as because many people were forced to reconsider their lives after the pandemic. Online education was one way to do something about it at a time when there was little else.
Each story line has its own story.
Schwab founded the company in Los Angeles on the basis of her own experiences as an advisor at Ernst & Young in her early career.
My initial goal was to change the way women view careers internationally. She recalled how the inspiration came from not having female mentors at Ernst & Young when she started. She said that feeling isolated is a bad thing in and of itself. However, it led to education and job placement along with mentoring, as we identified other reasons why women don't pursue tech careers.
In 2016, the company's first form was a brick-and mortar learning center. It was located in an LA 1920s building that had been a men's club. It was a strong sell. The learning period was shorter and the classes were in-person. 96% of the students completed the program with jobs available for over 90% of the cohorts at the end. Schwab stated that there is more accountability in person.
Entity was forced to abandon this model by the pandemic. However, it also provided the platform for scaling. It relaunched in 2020 as a virtual program from a new company headquarters in Las Vegas. The numbers increased, the company increased the course length and raised the tuition to reflect these longer engagements.
However, there have been some downsides to this, such as a drop in completion rates, which Schwab stated is something the company should work hard on.
Another aspect of the business has grown with the transition to virtual is the mentors. In the beginning, mentors were volunteers who wanted to either help more women in the industry or use their exposure to students to find jobs. This is also changing with online engagement.
Schwab stated that mentors are now paid and that professional moderators are brought in to maintain mentor-led discussions at a reasonable pace. She said that speakers often donate their fees for scholarships and childcare funds. The Entity network currently has 250 mentors. Some are focused on giving lectures to large groups of students, while others work with individual students to discuss technical subjects. Schwab stated that this number will increase to 500 by next year.
You may not have seen the job-searching aspect of this role as well. Entity Academy has a warning that job placement cannot be guaranteed.
This also means that there are potential opportunities. Others, like The Mom Project, are also looking at the possibility of targeting females. This is due to the large female workforce gap and the lack of resources to address it. This is changing, thankfully.
