Investing With Reach Capital

Reach Capital has its origins in NewSchools Venture Fund (NSVF), where our founding partners began working together and investing in early-stage education technology companies when they launched the NewSchools Seed fund in 2011 and the Zynga co.lab accelerator. The team made over 40 early-stage investments through that fund, including K-12 category leaders such as Newsela, Nearpod (acquired), SchoolMint (acquired), NoRedInk, ClassDojo, and Ellevation (acquired).

To grow their impact and continue investing in companies transforming how people learn, grow, and thrive, they spun out of NSVF and founded Reach Capital in 2015. They picked the name Reach to signify the goal of expanding the reach of high-quality learning experiences that increase access to opportunity. Reach has since invested in over 140 companies across learning, health, and work—areas that are essential and interconnected in our mission to enable people to live their best lives.

We are an early-stage venture capital firm that typically makes initial investments in Pre-seed, Seed, and Series A rounds.

A key element of our investment strategy is our ability to make investment decisions in a timely and efficient manner. We apply a high standard of due diligence when evaluating potential investments, but are nimble and can move quickly when necessary. 

Our check size depends on the stage of the financing round and the company’s business model. It typically ranges from $100K for Pre-seed to upwards of $12 million for later-stage startups.

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Check out openings at our portfolio companies here.

We also have a jobs community for early-stage technical talent here.

Reach Capital was founded on the belief that technology can increase access to life-changing opportunities made possible by quality education. Learning is core to all of our investments, regardless of sector. As technology and society continue to evolve, particularly with advances in artificial intelligence, our systems (from schools, universities, workplaces, and elsewhere) will need to transform the way they cultivate skills and opportunities.

As our longest active investment sector, we have backed a wide range of innovative solutions that support teachers, families, and learners of all ages. From high-quality student curriculum to tools that elevate teachers, improve school operations, and help adults upskill in the workplace, we are interested in technologies that make learning more engaging, effective, and accessible. We also see a shift away from tools that merely digitize existing systems toward platforms that reshape pedagogy, assessment, funding, and infrastructure itself.

If you are building in any of these areas, we’d love to connect!

We seek founders who bring authentic connection to the problems they’re solving, and whose lived experiences provide unique insights and unfair advantages in understanding stakeholder needs across the learning ecosystem.

Successful founders combine bold vision with pragmatic execution, navigating complex regulations while driving innovation. They learn fast, adapt quickly to feedback, and can attract exceptional talent. Our General Partner, Jennifer Carolan, has written about four qualities common across all founders. These are not the only important ones, of course, but they’re a solid foundation.

Our investment team includes former educators, administrators, and edtech operators, with decades of combined experience in school systems and education companies. We work closely alongside our founders, providing support in many areas (curriculum development, sales discovery calls, and hiring, to name just a few) and have built proprietary playbooks and market research specifically for learning businesses.

We also have an extensive education network. Our advisory board of education leaders in K-12 and higher education is available to our founders, and our scout community of founders and operators at leading edtech organizations supports (and sometimes joins!) our portfolio companies. We also regularly host and convene leading CEOs, operators, educators, and researchers at events for our portfolio.

Our healthcare investments are a natural part of Reach’s mission: to enable people to live their best lives. Health is foundational to both learning and thriving, and education itself is a proven social determinant of health.

Our team has written about theses in some specific areas including consumer-driven healthcare, holistic health solutions targeting gut health and food as medicine, and solutions tackling the healthcare workforce shortage by creating new supply or augmenting productivity with AI workflow tools. We also see opportunities to redesign holistic care for longer lives, and shift the healthcare system to a more predictive, proactive model of care. But we are not limited to these!

If you are working to make our healthcare system more effective, accessible, and/or equitable, we’d love to connect.

We seek founders who bring authentic connection to the healthcare problems they’re solving, whether through clinical experience, patient journeys, or industry operations. This lived experience provides unique insights and unfair advantages in understanding stakeholder needs across the healthcare ecosystem.

Successful founders combine bold vision with pragmatic execution, navigating complex regulations while driving innovation. They learn fast, adapt quickly to feedback, and can attract exceptional talent. Our General Partner, Jennifer Carolan, has written about four qualities common across all founders. These are not the only important ones, of course, but they’re a solid foundation.

By nature of being a vertical-specific fund, we can invest in targeted support tailored to the needs of healthcare founders. We proactively work alongside our founders on all aspects of early-stage company building, from recruiting top-tier talent to collaborating on sales, go-to-market, and product strategies. Our healthcare advisory board includes leaders from health systems, digital health companies, and payors who are available to our founders. Our scout community also includes operators at leading healthcare organizations who support (and sometimes join!) our portfolio companies. We also host AMAs, breakfasts, roundtables, and other events on topics like AI in healthcare and solutions that clinicians are looking for.

We proactively work alongside our founders on all aspects of early-stage company building, from recruiting top-tier talent to collaborating on sales, go-to-market, and product strategies. Our work advisory board of talent leaders and executives from some of the biggest global brands (including ADP, Boeing, IBM, Kraft Heinz, and Goldman Sachs) is available to our founders. Our scout community also includes founders and operators at leading enterprises from Amazon to Uber who support (and sometimes join!) our portfolio companies. We regularly host and convene leading CEOs, operators, and executives at roundtable discussions and events for our portfolio founders.

Within the future of work, we are focusing our investments across four key areas.

1. Vertical AI targeting industries like logistics, manufacturing, and construction, where AI can automate and augment work in sectors with low software penetration and high churn.
2. Horizontal AI, which is reinventing core business functions such as HR, sales, finance, and quality assurance.
3. AI stack—the critical infrastructure layers including data, access, model training, safety, and contextual memory.
4. AI-powered services, where AI enhances scalability and margins in labor-intensive industries.

We also believe AI will empower the SMB economy, unlock opportunities in micro-vertical markets, and set a new standard for what’s possible with human-agent coordination.

Across all of these areas, our focus remains consistent: investing in solutions that empower people and elevate human capability. If you’re building in these areas, let’s connect!

Economic opportunity is an important cornerstone of human potential. Our AI for work investments are rooted in helping people access meaningful careers, achieve economic prosperity, and reach their aspirations. In an age of unprecedented technological and social transformation, we back visionary companies creating new, innovative solutions that leverage technology for the benefit of workers.

We believe AI represents a transformative opportunity to empower workers. At Reach, we see AI agents and copilots as “digital worker companions” that will dramatically enhance productivity across industries struggling with labor shortages—from manufacturing and logistics to healthcare and services. This vision builds on our long-standing commitment to workforce development and education. By complementing reskilling and training efforts, AI can make today’s workforce more capable, efficient, and adaptable. Ultimately, our thesis is grounded in human empowerment: using AI to extend human potential, bridge skill gaps, and enable access to more meaningful and higher-value work.

We seek founders who bring authentic connection to the problems they’re solving, and whose lived experiences provide unique insights and unfair advantages in understanding stakeholder needs across the work ecosystem.

Successful founders combine bold vision with pragmatic execution, navigating complex regulations while driving innovation. They learn fast, adapt quickly to feedback, and can attract exceptional talent. Our General Partner, Jennifer Carolan, has written about four qualities common across all founders. These are not the only important ones, of course, but they’re a solid foundation.