AcademixDirect, which helps state and community colleges enroll students, has merged with PathSource, which operates a career exploration app that helps adults and kids figure out what jobs they’d like to do.
PathSource CEO Aaron Michel, who co-founded the Burlingame, CA, company in 2011, says the merger creates an end-to-end process from career search through forming an educational plan and choosing a college.
Menlo Park, CA-based AcademixDirect, founded in 2004, says it not only helps colleges recruit students well-suited to the programs they offer, but also follows up with one-to-one counseling to help schools retain those students.
“The addition of PathSource allows us to fine tune the process even further, providing the students with a clearer picture of their education and career path and schools with students who are far more likely to graduate,” AcademixDirect CEO Don Loonam said in a written statement.
The two Silicon Valley companies didn’t announce financial terms of the merger.
AcademixDirect’s services are free to students. Colleges, in return for the company’s package of enrollment and retention services, share a portion of each student’s tuition with AcademixDirect, Michel said in an e-mail exchange with Xconomy.
“This solves the primary problem you see in most edtech business models—that no one is willing to pay,” Michel wrote. “The model is absolutely capable of reaching profitability.”
