The United States is facing a maternal mortality crisis.
Pregnant Americans are dying at a 10x rate of some other advanced countries like Australia and Japan. And specifically, Black women are most negatively impacted and are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications.
That's where our new investment, Mae Health comes in. Read on to learn how Mae is creating a world where high quality, proactive care is the standard.
We're excited to announce that we've been selected to the ImpactAssets 50 2024 as an Emeritus Impact Manager! The IA50 Emeritus recognizes impact fund managers who have achieved IA 50 recognition for at least 5 years and consistently demonstrate a commitment to generating positive impact. We are proud to be recognized among this prestigious group of influential players in building the impact ecosystem.
This month we want to congratulate three team members:
Rahul Bhide, for his promotion to Vice President
Priya Parrish, for being named a National Association of Securities Professionals Chicago 2024 Trailblazing Woman in Finance
Anna Reilly, for her promotion to Senior Analyst
Each year Impact Engineers attend dozens of conferences and events.
Our Senior Analyst Anna Reilly filed this dispatch from SXSW EDU in Austin, Texas. She writes:
"I made the most of every minute at SXSW EDU! I was able to meet one on one with over 15 current founders in the education and future of work spaces, who are all building innovative companies tackling issues from AI-enabled mathematics tutoring to scalable mental health screening for adolescents.
"It was also great to meet one on one with more than 10 current investors in the education and future of work spaces, who are investing across stages (venture, growth, and private equity) and markets (US, Europe, and LATAM) and thus, able to offer unique perspectives on both the industry’s pain points and opportunities.
"Finally, SXSW EDU was an excellent opportunity to catch up with representatives of several of our investments, including Lumos Capital, Reach Capital, and ReUp Education, the latter of which was featured on a panel about non-traditional approaches to bridging skill gaps. It was fascinating to hear Lumos Capital and others speak about the importance of embedding impactful user-design insights into AI/ML models in education products during the "Investor Talk on AI: All-In or All-Hype" session.
Stay tuned for future dispatches from Impact Engine on the road.
Mae Health, the maternal mortality rate fighter, announced a partnership with Aetna Better Health® of Illinois, a CVS Health company. The program will focus on addressing health disparities between Black and white women in places like Chicago, where Black women have a maternal mortality rate almost 6 times higher than white women.
ThinkCERCA, the digital literacy platform for classrooms, unveiled a new patent-pending AI-powered automated feedback mechanism for student writing.
Their upgraded software can help school districts like Chicago Public Schools (the third largest in the US) unlock immediate and ongoing feedback as students write.
The Vistria Group, a fund investment of ours, has been named Impact Firm of the Year in the category of Education by New Private Markets.
Over the past decade, our friends at Vistria have invested $1.7 billion in knowledge and learning solutions in their quest to improve our education ecosystem.