Tuition.io Raises $7M in Series B Funding to Fuel Growth and Market Expansion for Employer Student Loan Contribution Platform

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tuition.io, the nation's first and most comprehensive employer-funded student loan repayment assistance platform, announced today a $7 million Series B funding round led by Wildcat Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures and MassMutual Ventures LLC, the corporate venture capital arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. This round of funding will enable Tuition.io to scale its sales and customer success teams, expand and deepen product offerings and drive market expansion. Tuition.io is also announcing Scott Simmons as its chief operating and financial officer and Danica Bracy as senior director of partner success.

With a growing list of Fortune 500 clients including Live Nation, Staples and Fidelity Investments, Tuition.io was the first-to-market with an enterprise-grade platform and continues to be a trailblazer in offering student loan repayment assistance as an employee benefit. Currently, more than 44M Americans hold a total of $1.4T in outstanding student loan debt that is growing at a rate of $2,726 per second. The number of companies expected to adopt student loan repayment programs is expected to jump to 26% in 2018, up from 4% in 2015.

"This new funding round from our investors is strong validation of our mission and a belief in our efforts to help global companies stay competitive in the increasingly aggressive race to hire and retain top talent," said Scott Thompson, CEO of Tuition.io. "We are committed to expanding our student assistance offerings and driving mass adoption until student loan repayment assistance becomes a national and even international employee benefit standard."

This unique benefit is growing quickly as it impacts multiple generations of employees from millennials to baby boomers across the U.S. workforce. Tuition.io works with clients in a range of industries including entertainment, medical, banking, retail and now public entities. Just recently, the City of Memphis partnered with Tuition.io to become the first city in the country to offer a student debt reduction program for city employees.

"Tuition.io's value to our partners and their employees is clear. The company is changing the face of employee benefits while helping address a national crisis that is only slated to get worse," said Bryan Stolle, General Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners. "We have worked with Tuition.io since their inception and are excited to see their vision of helping ease the burden of student loans for the U.S. workforce become a reality."

Tuition.io is also announcing two key hires who will be based in the new San Mateo, CA office.

• In a newly created joint COO/CFO position, Scott Simmons will oversee the company's operational management and financial strategy. Simmons joins Tuition.io after almost four years with ShopRunner, where he acted as COO/CFO and oversaw the company's rapid retail and member network expansion. Previously, Simmons was with NexTag, a leading global e-commerce services company, for over a decade where he served in a variety of roles beginning with VP of Finance and extending to VP of Business Development, VP and General Manager, Services Shopping, SVP Marketing and ultimately President of NexTag. Prior to NexTag, Simmons held a variety of senior financial and analyst positions with Real Time Data, a wireless data application company, and financial services giant Prudential Investment Corporation. Simmons received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
• As Senior Director of Partner Success, Danica Bracy will oversee management of the company's diverse client portfolio. Bracy has a decade of employee benefits experience in both the insurance and financial services industries, previously holding senior account management roles at Liberty Mutual Insurance and Prudential Financial. Bracy will work with Tuition.io clients to ensure successful implementation and help optimize employee satisfaction with the program and benefit.

Tuition.io has raised a total of $15.2 million in funding. The company's roster of clients is rapidly expanding, with recent additions including Clark Patterson Lee, CyberSearch, EnVogue International, IntegriChain, Iowa Farm Bureau, Massage Envy Bay Area, MidwestOne Bank among others.

ABOUT TUITION.IO
Tuition.io is the nation's leading employee benefit platform empowering employers to better attract, retain and engage their next generation of talent who are saddled with stifling student debt, by helping their employees reduce and better manage their student loan burden. The first provider to bring employer student loan contributions to market at scale, the award-winning company is managing more than $2 billion in outstanding loans on its secure platform. Tuition.io works with companies of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies such as Fidelity Investments and Staples, to startups including ChowNow and Chegg, as well as public entities such as the City of Memphis. Tuition.io is on a mission to provide an impactful solution for employers and employees across the country. For more information, visit www.tuition.io.

Media Contact:
Zella Panossian
Illume PR for Tuition.io
[email protected] / 310.452.4446

SOURCE Tuition.io

Related Links

https://www.tuition.io