In an effort to provide the best education for students across the country, legislation is constantly being reformed. All these new education policies usually help, but are often difficult to implement and difficult for parents to understand.
That’s where Odyssey The company developed an end-to-end disbursement and e-commerce platform for program management that makes educational offerings such as tuition, tutoring, technology and extra-curricular enrichment more affordable.
One would think that with such technology, states would be elbowing each other to get into it. Alternative education, however, is rather controversial topic for some when it goes beyond the traditional public school system.
Some advocate for students to attend any school, for example, a religiously supported private school, charter school, home school, or other small learning environment, and have federal funding follow the student. The global pandemic has also taught us that teaching needs to be flexible, which has opened the door for companies like Prenda to provide ways for someone to start their own ‘micro-school’.
Challenges of implementation of educational policy
Joseph Connor, founder and CEO of Odyssey, knows this all too well. She began teaching in low-income charter schools in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and San Jose. He then decided to go to law school, where he also consulted on early education choice policies in Indiana, Louisiana and Florida.
The majority of states have amendments called the Blaine Amendments enacted in the late 19th century, which were intended to prevent the use of public funds in community schools. Connor worked for a company helping with 2020 Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue case where the US Supreme Court held that funding policies that discriminated against schools based on their religious status violated the First Amendment. He said this case “paved the way for the policies we are helping to implement today.”
Following this decision, Connor started his own network of schools where he saw first hand how demanding new education policies were to implement, but also how helpful they were to parents when implemented correctly.
“States have tried to manage these on their own and it’s been very complicated,” Connor told TechCrunch. “In some cases, they worked with traditional software vendors that weren’t well equipped to do that particular policy.”
Laying the groundwork for easier school choice
So he started Odyssey three years ago as a tech startup to help the states in a few ways. First, it educates parents about what an education savings account program is, who is eligible for one, and how to enroll. It then manages the application process, working with the state agency to create the application questions, manage the ID verification process, and enable schools to accept tuition.
“Historically, one of the biggest barriers to adoption has been identity verification,” Connor said. “It can be a very slow process. Imagine your state asking you to give us your birth certificate or driver’s license. You may have to find a scanner and upload it, then wait a few weeks or up to 60 days to find out if you qualify.”
Instead, there’s Odyssey’s technology — which Connor touts as “the first real-time identity verification technology in the country” that’s both secure and scalable. Instead of the industry standard of 30 to 60 days, the company is able to tell a parent in less than a second after it’s submitted if they qualify and how much they’ll be awarded.
The state is able to supervise and control the whole process in order to reduce fraud and abuse. One of the major concerns of states that administer such programs is to ensure that parents spend the money for the intended purpose.
To do this, Odyssey’s platform includes a closed, private seller marketplace where government-controlled products and services can be purchased using the Education Savings Account. The company handles payment processing and customer support for these vendors and then data analysis for the state.
Expanding to more states
The company serves more than 130,000 students in three states in Iowa, Missouri and Idaho. It is also in discussions with a few additional state governments.
Odyssey is paid for by the state, usually on a per student basis. In the past year, the company has seen revenue grow threefold.
Now the company is looking to make a series of key leadership hires and bring in additional engineering people. To do this, Odyssey recently raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Bradley Tusk of Tusk Venture Partners, with additional support from existing investor Katherine Boyle of Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Kohlmann of Cubit Capital and Ben Ling of Bling Capital.
Investors were particularly interested in what Odyssey was doing with real-time identity verification, Connor said. He’s only in education right now, which he said will keep the company busy for years. However, with features such as the digital wallet and state-regulated marketplace, there are opportunities to offer additional programs to states.
The new funding will also allow the company to expand where it offers services. This includes escalating into situations where one is already in and transitioning into new situations.
“We want to influence policy and states that don’t currently have programs, explain to them why it’s important to have these programs and allow states to run these programs more effectively,” Connor said. “We really strongly believe that the best way to empower parents is through these types of programs, so we want to make sure they’re accessible to everyone.”
