Social Finance Announces $2.6 Million Investment in Upswing to Help More Students Access Holistic Student Support

The investment aims to drive economic mobility for learners by improving retention and graduation rates at Upswing’s partner institutions

(BOSTON, MA) — Today, Social Finance announced that the UP Fund has made a $2.6 million investment in Upswing, an education technology company providing holistic student support services to colleges that serve historically marginalized and non-traditional students—including minority, first-generation, adult learners, student parents, veterans, and others outside of the typical 18- to 22-year-old profile. The investment aims to help more students persist in their programs, earn new degrees, and enter the workforce.

Historically marginalized and non-traditional college students face many barriers to success and experience higher drop-out rates than traditional students. Upswing partners with four-year universities, community colleges, non-profit organizations, and trade schools to provide students with online access to a suite of holistic support services—including 24/7 tutoring, mental health, and SMS learner engagement services—to boost student retention. The UP Fund’s investment in Upswing will allow the company to scale its operations and serve more students, all at no cost to the student. Upswing and Social Finance will track information on student employment outcomes and post-program earnings in order to monitor the impact of the investment.

“Non-tuition supportive services play a critical role in student persistence and success. Our investment in Upswing presents an opportunity to deepen the UP Fund’s understanding of these supports and develop best practices around how they can be deployed to positively impact student outcomes,” said Andrew Chen, Vice President of Impact Investments at Social Finance. “This investment in Upswing’s technology-enabled platform will provide us an opportunity to both serve and gather insights about learners at a much greater scale than we have through previous UP Fund investments.”

Upswing currently has 66 active customers—made up of 4-year universities, community colleges, non-profit organizations, and trade schools that predominantly serve non-traditional students—through which Upswing is serving over 515,000 students. Their user base is more racially diverse than the U.S. educational system as a whole, with 51 percent of their customers being Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). Additionally, 16 percent of Upswing’s customers are rural institutions.

“I started Upswing to help students from communities like mine to get a fair opportunity at upward mobility. Too many students quit due to challenges outside of the classroom,” said Melvin Hines, CEO and Co-Founder of Upswing. “Thanks to our partnership with Social Finance, our work can continue towards making their dreams a reality.”

The UP Fund is a $50 million pool of catalytic capital that aims to help upskill people who face barriers to education and employment. Since 2020, the UP Fund has supported the design and launch of eight outcomes-based workforce and economic mobility initiatives to upskill workers across the country into in-demand jobs in health care, IT, the skilled trades, and beyond.

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About Social Finance

Social Finance (SF Advisors, LLC) is a national nonprofit and registered investment advisor. We work with the public, private, and social sectors to create partnerships and investments that measurably improve lives. Our Impact Investment team designs, launches, and manages impact-first investments. Our Advisory team partners with government and philanthropy leaders to implement data-driven programs for social impact. And through the Social Finance Institute, we aim to build the field and change systems through actionable research, communities of practice, and educational outreach. Since our founding in 2011, we have mobilized more than $400 million in new investments designed to help people and communities realize improved outcomes in workforce and economic mobility, health, and housing. Learn more at socialfinance.org.

About Upswing

Upswing was founded in 2013 by Melvin Hines and Alex Pritchett with a mission to help historically marginalized students achieve their life goals. Upswing is an online, wraparound student services platform that provides 24/7 academic and holistic support to help colleges supplement or enhance their campus resources. Our effective solutions for tutoring, advising, mental health, and engagement are all powered by actionable data to help reduce the barriers to graduation for first generation, online, adult, lower-income, and other non-traditional students no matter where they are. By partnering with educational institutions, we provide students, staff, and admin with a modern student services experience that results in more students attaining a degree.