Investing for Educational Impact

June 26, 2019 Voqal is excited to announce a new round of Education Opportunity Project grants focused on supporting organizations that are using innovative approaches to address opportunity gaps in education. The grants of $50,000 to National Education Policy Center (NEPC), Weird Enough Productions, LENA and TalkingPoints reflect Voqal’s belief that one of the best

April 26, 2019 Voqal is pleased to report that its Education Opportunity Project early childhood portfolio company, Sparkler, was acquired by Viacom. Sparkler’s technology helps parents track their children’s milestone and developmental progress to provide customized content and advice to improve engagement and early childhood development. Voqal invested in Sparkler in 2018 to help with

March 27, 2019 In the latest installment of the Education Opportunity Project Spotlight, Voqal Education Program Director Vinny Badolato highlights a recent investee of the project, LiftEd. Oakland, California-based LiftEd is a mobile academic, functional skill and behavior management app for special education teachers and related service providers that: Saves time tracking and reporting student

January 31, 2019 As part of our ongoing series featuring stories from Voqal’s FY 2018 Annual Report: Be Nimble, we take a look at one of the Voqal’s Educational Opportunity Project investees, Peekapak and their innovative work to help address the educational opportunity gap. Leo the Hedgehog is a tinkerer and loves to learn how

January 15, 2019 In the latest installment of the Education Opportunity Project Spotlight, Voqal Education Program Director Vinny Badolato highlights a recent investee of the project, School Deets. Denver-based School Deets is a school communications app designed for easy, whole school communication with a special emphasis on improving communications for non-English speaking parents. Integrating parents

September 21, 2018 Voqal’s Education Opportunity Project made a series of investments this summer in companies that help advance our goal of measurably reducing educational opportunity gaps. One of those investments, New York-based Sparkler, provides a mobile infrastructure to promote early brain and childhood development for children from birth to age 8, with a goal

May 1, 2018 Voqal believes the opportunity gap is the most pervasive and damaging problem in the U.S. educational system. We define the opportunity gap as the educational disparity and inequity that exists across racial and class lines. It is one of the root causes of rising economic inequality. Rather than the outcomes-focused achievement gap

March 14, 2018 Voqal recently attended SXSW EDU, the education innovation-focused prelude to the annual SXSW madness in Austin, Texas. Vinny Badolato, Voqal education program director, and Molly Fohn, Mobile Citizen anchor institutions program manager, took the conference by storm, looking for new ways to further Voqal’s education work. The conference offered diverse panels, Meetups

January 12, 2018 Voqal recently released its 2017 annual report and is starting the new year off by featuring some of the stories from the report on our blog. We start this look back at FY 2017 with a spotlight on one of Voqal’s more recent initiatives, the Education Venture Fund. PAIRIN CEO and co-founder,

November 3, 2017 The following is the latest post from Voqal Education Program Director Vinny Badolato sharing his thoughts on the need for better accountability measures for America’s education system. I’ve been thinking a lot about school quality and accountability lately. My oldest son entered third grade this year, which marks the major milestone of