Breaking Barriers: Crimson Forges Strategic Partnerships for a New Era of Innovation

In this blog post, Crimson Education’s Co-Founder and CEO, Jamie Beaton, celebrates a major milestone in Crimson Education’s journey as the company secures $25 million in funding from an elite group of strategic partners. This infusion of capital, along with the backing of leaders from education, technology, business, and sports, positions Crimson for a new era of transformative growth. Keep reading to learn about the tremendous potential these partnerships have to fuel a new era of innovation and global expansion as we remain committed to empowering ambitious students from around the world.

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As we celebrate a decade of transformative impact in education, 2024 stands out as a defining moment for Crimson Education. This year, we not only marked our ten-year anniversary but also achieved unprecedented success in the most competitive admissions landscape to date. Our students' remarkable achievements are a testament to their determination and the strength of our personalized approach.

Building on this momentum, we are thrilled to announce the next phase of our journey: securing $25 million USD in capital funding along with strategic backing from a stellar lineup of prominent organizations, leaders, and celebrities in media, public relations, finance, business, and communications. 

This exceptional support not only reinforces our foundation but also unlocks new possibilities for expanding our global reach and amplifying our impact. With these new resources and insights, we are poised to continue leading the way in shaping the future of education.

Introducing Our New Strategic Partners

While we are proud of what we’ve achieved during our first decade of growth, sustaining and building on this kind of success requires crucial financial backing, business acumen, and insightful planning and stewardship.

With this in mind, we are tremendously excited to embrace the backing of many influential partners eager to amplify and extend our success and solidify our world-leading status in the admissions advising arena:

• US News & World Report
• Icehouse Ventures
• Five Sigma
• HighSage Ventures
• NFL legend Larry Fitzgerald Jr.

With this roster of influential  and experienced investors, advisors, and celebrity personalities, Crimson will be poised to strengthen its core teams and services and transform the lives of more promising scholars while opening doors to new ideas, innovations, and future possibilities. To that end, I am excited to start envisioning a new generation of innovation. My promise as Co-Founder and CEO is to steward these valuable human and capital resources with an unwavering focus on promoting our core educational mission and expanding our services and our reach.

Beyond Capital: The Power of Influence and Experience

This new funding round brings not only game-changing capital investments but immeasurable strategic advising and communications partnerships.

As we pivot to a new decade of pursuing growth, innovation, and excellence, our strategic planning will benefit from the expertise and experiences of seasoned business innovators and entrepreneurs, including Gregory Cappelli, the former CEO of Apollo Education Group (formerly the world's largest publicly traded US education company of all time) and GreenMount, an investment partner of Ngāi Tahu Holdings.

It’s hard to overemphasize the strategic advantage of having such diverse backers. Not only will their influence and expertise help us extend and transform our offerings, these high-profile leaders also have a shared appreciation for the power of education, especially when aligned with the kinds of commitment, motivation, and vision that make Crimson students tomorrow’s change makers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and social leaders.

Beyond our new infusion of capital, we’ll be benefitting from tremendous strategic insights in this area as we welcome newcomers to the table such as Movac with expertise investing in companies across deep tech, hardware, and software. Five Sigma, another new addition, is a global growth fund backing the “best of the best” edtech businesses in the world.

Finally, we’ll also be welcoming Harvard alumnus, seasoned management consultant, and former New Zealand Labour Party Minister Hon David Cunliffe QSO, as a new advisory board member. I can hardly imagine the synergies these amazing additions will bring to our organization. I am beyond excited anticipating what new ground we can push into on the technology front with the strategic backing of these new partners.

Empowering Dreams

Our founding vision is about opening doors to life-changing educational experiences for more students — not just students in the US, UK, and Europe, but motivated young scholars with big dreams living in regions all over the globe. Even when academically talented and with a passion for learning, many students can face significant challenges making their college dreams come true.

Talia is a great example. She had truly exceptional qualifications and aspirations, including a 4.5 GPA, a 1520 SAT score and a compelling passion for physics and STEM research. But living in Brazil and dreaming of attending a top US university was only one of her big challenges. In addition to getting an offer of admission, she needed a significant financial offer and wanted access to opportunities for meaningful undergraduate research in STEM fields.

Talia’s determination, coupled with outstanding advising and mentorship from numerous Crimson team members, ultimately opened a door to attending UPenn as a Vagelos MLS Scholar.

Many of our new backers are achievers, innovators, and entrepreneurs themselves, with a shared appreciation for the kinds of dreams that motivate our students. In fact, our students often grow into leaders, entrepreneurs, and change makers in their own right.

Today, Crimson alumni have prominent roles at innovative companies impacting lives around the world: OpenAI, DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Blackstone, Warburg Pincus, KKR, Citadel, Hudson River Trading, Jane Street, Uber, Evercore, Vista Equity, Meta, Amazon, Google, Spark Capital, and more.

Our alumni have also earned Rhodes Scholarships, been admitted into MIT, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, Y-Combinator, Man Group, Kirkland and Ellis, Paul Weiss, Lyft and Microsoft.

Building Opportunity Ladders

During our first ten years, we quickly began looking for innovative ways to create ladders of opportunity for young scholars. We have models that have already opened doors for many deserving and motivated students — from an online academy and equity-focused scholarship initiatives to high-quality mentoring and leadership development programmes, and more… Our new funding and strategic partnerships will empower Crimson to extend these efforts and introduce new ones, creating diverse ladders of support and opportunity for aspiring scholars around the world.

Case Study: Crimson Global Academy

Early on, our Crimson team members realized that insightful and skilled admissions advising had a crucial role to play helping more deserving scholars get matched with and accepted at top schools where they could develop their potential to the fullest.

However, gaining admission to an Ivy League or similar-caliber institution takes more than comprehensive and strategic application planning and execution. It also requires a steady commitment in high school years to pursuing academic rigor and excellence.

To that end, we founded CGA, Crimson Global Academy.

• CGA offers access to a fully online community of top educators and young scholars and helps scholars from around the world succeed in AP and A-Level courses and exams, so they can build the resume they need to get into a top university and fully demonstrate a high level of academic readiness, potential, and promise.
• CGA has received Western Association of Schools and Colleges' (WASC) Accreditation and has been ranked in the Top 10 STEM schools in America and Top 3 online schools in America, with rapid growth in both full-time and part-time students.
• CGA students have achieved admission into an array of top-ranking universities, including Princeton, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech.

CGA’s founding and success reflects the depth and breadth of our global network of Ivy League graduates and skilled educators and admissions advisors.

Now, with new funding and a new infusion of strategic partners bringing new insights and synergies to our mission, we are excited to begin a new era of envisioning. What might CGA offer at the end of this decade? What other innovative approaches have we yet to imagine, let alone try, for opening doors to top schools for a more diverse global cohort of deserving young scholars?

Final Thoughts

Securing $25 million in funding from such an extraordinary group of strategic partners marks a significant milestone in Crimson Education’s journey. This is more than just a financial victory; it’s a stunning endorsement of our mission and of the accomplishments of our first ten years and will ensure we continue to accelerate our growth and expand our innovative offerings and global footprint. 

As we embark on this exciting new chapter, we invite you to join us on this journey. Whether you’re a student aiming for top-tier university admissions, an educator seeking cutting-edge tools to support your students, or an investor interested in shaping the future of education, now is the perfect time to engage with Crimson. Explore our programs, connect with our experts, and be part of a community dedicated to realizing the full potential of every student.