Acumen Latam Impact Ventures (“ALIVE”) announces a bridge investment in uPlanner, a Chilean edtech company that uses artificial intelligence and big data to help public and private higher education institutions in Latin America optimize their internal processes, improve their students’ education experience and reduce attrition rates through predictive models. More broadly, uPlanner supports the transition of universities to online delivery, by providing them with the tools needed to improve their process and optimize their resources while ensuring a high-quality students’ educational experience.
Currently more than 2.5 million students in 200 campuses across 16 different countries use uPlanner´s products, and more than 80% of institutions they serve primarily benefit students who belong to low-income and vulnerable populations. uPlanner also works closely with governments in the region to increase the quality and coverage of public education, highlighting a partnership with the Peruvian Ministry of Education, Laspau, an institution affiliated with Harvard University, and Tecnológico de Monterrey, aimed to support the digitalization of 20 Peruvian public universities, impacting more than 350,000 students.
uPlanner has also received recognition from several organizations for its innovative and high impact model, being recently recognized as Microsoft´s Partner of the Year in its recently launched Social Impact category, in which uPlanner was selected from more than 4,400 Microsoft partners worldwide.
“The accelerated digitalization that education institutions are facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic united to an urgency to be more efficient and reduce desertion rates, has placed uPlanner in a unique position to support these institutions to effectively overcome these challenges while ensuring access to high quality education for everyone “, said Virgilio Barco, Co-founder & Managing Partner of ALIVE, whom will be joining uPlanner’s board of directors.
Juan Pablo Mena, CEO & founder of uPlanner, is an experienced entrepreneur with a profound social drive and more than 15 years of experience developing and aiding in the implementation of educational technologies and managing resources at higher education institutions in Chile and abroad.
“The beauty of working at EdTech is that technologies such as artificial intelligence and algorithms can visibly make a huge social impact, we are thrilled to see how these new resources from ALIVE Ventures will multiply this impact”, commented Juan Pablo Mena, CEO & founder of uPlanner.
The proceeds of this round seek to support the company’s expansion plans in Latin America and abroad as well as the development of new products and functionalities with the aim of further improve students’ educational experience and quality.