- Leading school search platform Niche announced it has raised $35 million in Series C funding
Leading school search platform Niche announced it has raised $35 million in Series C funding led by Radian Capital with additional participation from Salesforce Ventures as well as existing investors Allen & Company LLC and Tim Armstrong. Plus Niche also announced today the appointment of Radian Capital partner and co-founder Weston Gaddy and Cognizant co-founder and executive vice president Francisco D’Souza to its board of directors.
With this round of funding, Niche plans to advance the platform as the leading destination for users to manage their school search journey thus making it easier for students to manage their full application process.
And as a two-sided platform, the company currently has over 1,400 school clients including Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard Westlake School, Boston University and k12.com. And Niche will use the funding to partner with thousands of additional schools.
Niche has established itself as the go-to recruiting tool for the nation’s education market, particularly during this uncertain time when students and schools are exclusively online.
So far, the company has shown tremendous growth over the last year while maintaining capital efficiency. And in 2019, Niche increased its ARR over 100% and client base by more than 60% YoY and was cash-flow positive for the majority of the year.
Niche also grew its team size by 60% and plans to continue to expand headcount across product, engineering, marketing, and sales.
As schools have come under increased pressure due to tighter budgets and higher student acquisition costs, Niche’s value proposition of matching high-quality candidates with the right school provides a strong return on investment for educational clients.
The Niche website and native app includes over 130,000 in-depth profiles on colleges and schools, over 140 million reviews, and ratings from students, parents and alumni — providing powerful user search tools and resources to use during the school selection process.
Last year, Niche’s platform had over 100 million visits. Currently, more than one in two college-bound high school seniors are registered on the site and using the company’s discovery tools to find a college or university.
Niche is also giving schools the opportunity to include links to their virtual tours on their site profiles to allow students to virtually explore campus life due to the shift in virtual school programs in response to COVID-19. Plus the company has also extensively surveyed over 50,000 students and parents to track how school communities and students’ academic progress and college plans are being affected by COVID-19.
Key Quotes:
“Practically overnight, tens of millions of students across the country switched to online classes, standardized testing was canceled, and school tours went virtual for the foreseeable future. Students and families need a reliable way to research and authentically connect with schools online. Schools need a better way to connect with millennial parents and Gen-Z students in this mobile-first, digital era. We’ve been seeing these trends for a long time and they will be accelerated in a post-COVID-19 reality. We’re now more confident than ever in our ability to successfully help schools navigate the changing digital landscape and connect with more best-fit students.”
-Luke Skurman, CEO and founder of Niche
“At Radian, we focus on companies that build technology-enabled businesses that redefine industries and Niche is doing exactly that with its modern approach to enrollment marketing for schools. We believe that Niche is revolutionizing school search and will lead the way for the future of recruitment, as it continues to gain market share at an impressive pace.”
-Weston Gaddy, Partner and Co-founder of Radian Capital
