“I couldn’t get a credit card because my parents couldn’t co-sign,” Kobe recalls, “and I didn’t want to put down a large security deposit.
Scott points out that New York-based Fizz set out to offer college students a different entry ramp into building credit.
And if you ask any of them, they’ll tell you that they’re credit card averse, but they’re not necessarily credit averse,” he told TechCrunch.
”Fizz is one of several fintechs aiming to serve the expansive Gen Z market.
For instance, Frich, a financial education and social community for Gen Z, just raised $2.8 million in seed funding.
The CFPB is permanently banning BloomTech from consumer lending activities and its CEO, Austen Allred, from student lending for a period of ten years.
Allred founded BloomTech, which rebranded from the Lambda School in 2022 after cutting half its staff, in 2017.
(According to the CFPB, BloomTech originated “at least” 11,000 such loans.)
BloomTech didn’t market the loans as such, saying that they didn’t create debt and were “risk free,” and advertised a 71%-86% job placement rate.
And, unbeknownst to many students, BloomTech was selling a portion of its loans to investors while depriving recipients of rights they should’ve had under a federal protection known as the Holder Rule.
Monday’s announcement arrives on the heels of Meta prompting Quest users to confirm their age so it can provide teens and preteens with appropriate experiences.
Meta said it will launch it first in the 20 markets where it already supports Quest for Business, Meta’s workplace-focused $14.99/month subscription.
It’s not clear how ubiquitous VR use is in schools: one provider, ClassVR, claims that 40,000 classrooms worldwide are using its products.
And another big question mark will relate to the cost of buying headsets — Quest 3’s, the latest headsets, start at around $500 apiece for basic models — buying apps and then subsequently supporting all of that infrastructure.
Meta said that it has already donated Quest headsets to 15 universities in the U.S., but it’s not clear how far it will go to subsidise growth longer-term.
Home From College, a career platform for young professionals and college students looking for their first job or internship, announced Wednesday that it raised $5.4 million in a seed round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures).
Home From College aims to disrupt the traditional job search for Gen Z, who are gravitating toward more flexible opportunities outside of the 9-5.
Some call Gen Z the “freelance generation,” with 67% of Gen Zers embracing freelance work and 71% prioritizing jobs with flexible working hours, per Fiverr.
Gen Z is also exploring more creative roles, with many looking to build their careers in social media, entertainment, marketing, beauty, and fashion.
Another way that Home From College caters to Gen Z and stands apart from other career sites is its interview feature where students answer questions from real companies, which they can post to their profiles.
Anonymous social apps tend to appeal to younger users and are often used for bad behavior like bullying, harassment, and online abuse.
It seems every few years — and no matter how many times anonymous apps like these fail — someone, somewhere builds yet another anonymous social platform.
Yik Yik, in fact, is on its second life.
No matter how many times this trend is tried, standalone anonymous social apps aimed at consumers rarely lead to a sustainable business.
Yik Yak, Sidechat, Whisper, and Fizz were asked for comment using public email addresses published on their websites and in their terms of service.
Empowerly, an edtech startup that specializes in college counseling and career guidance services, raised $15 million in a recent funding round led by Conductive Ventures, the company announced today.
“Last year was one of the most competitive college admissions seasons of all time,” co-founder Hanmei Wu tells TechCrunch.
Empowerly has a network of over 100 college counselors who focus on areas such as pre-med, engineering, STEM, business, law and humanities, among others.
Empowerly touts its proprietary technology – The Empowerly Score – as the main differentiator between its competitors, which include CollegeWise, Solomon Admission Consulting and AcceptU.
Additionally, Empowerly joined the Sequoia marketplace in July 2023, providing its services as an employee benefit to working parents.
Masterclass rival Studio launched today its first AI-powered online school for musicians, songwriters and producers to learn from top artists in the industry, create new songs, get feedback from like-minded peers and access Studio’s AI coach that keeps them on track with personalized schedules and deadlines.
Studio’s Music School provides thousands of exclusive lessons taught by over 110 popular artists and instructors, including Charlie Puth, Kygo, H.E.R., Idina Menzel, Pentatonix, Ryan Tedder (frontman for OneRepublic), Alexander 23, Tainy, Chelsea Cutler, Jonas Blue, Shane McAnally and Louis Bell, among others.
There are over 100 topics to choose from, such as vocal production, songwriting, music business, sound design, music theory, cover songs, and musical theater, as well as genres like alternative, classical, country, EDM, folk, hip-hop, indie pop, lo-fi, metal, R&B and more.
The online accelerator features an AI-powered coach that leverages OpenAI’s GPT-4 to deliver personalized curriculums every month based on someone’s interests, specific goals, learning style and level of experience.
It should be noted that Studio’s Music School isn’t designed for beginners looking to start a career in the music industry but for creatives who already know the basics and want to enhance their skills.
Microsoft today made Reading Coach, its AI-powered tool that provides learners with personalized reading practice, available at no cost to anyone with a Microsoft account.
As of this morning, Reading Coach is accessible on the web in preview — a Windows app is forthcoming.
And soon (in late spring), Reading Coach will integrate with learning management systems such as Canva, Microsoft says.
Inspired by the success of Reading Progress (evidently), Microsoft launched Reading Coach in 2022 as a part of Teams for Education and Immersive Reader, the company’s cross-platform assistive service for language and reading comprehension.
“Reading Coach intrinsically motivates learners to continue advancing their skills in several ways,” Microsoft continues.
European insurtech company Getsafe has acquired deineStudienfinanzierung, an aptly named German digital platform for student loans that was showcased on the local version of “Shark Tank” in 2019.
“Student loans are the second most popular form of external student financing in Germany after [grants].
Unlike in the U.S., universities in Germany are largely tuition-free, which means that student loans are generally used to cover living expenses.
The financing volume has returned to previous levels since.”Just like Getsafe didn’t invent insurance, deineStudienfinanzierung didn’t invent student loans.
By the time customers apply for a student loan, the barriers to switch are quite high.
In the depth of the pandemic, 500 or so backers chipped in to make Makera’s Carvera Kickstarter campaign, a fully automatic desktop CNC machine, hit its goal.
At CES in Las Vegas, Makera showed off the Carvera Air, its baby brother.
With almost the same work space, but less a few of the fancy features of its larger sibling, Makera Air is a (slightly) different beast, even better suited to learning the basics of CNC manufacturing.
“Technology is the future,” Erdreich asserted.
“And the future needs creators, not just consumers.”Erdreich has a clear vision for Makera and is excited about the company’s direction.
