Fortune honors emeritus for creating positive social impact, highlights work to reskill and upskill the global workforce.
Boston – October 25, 2021 – Emeritus, the global leader in making high-quality upskilling education accessible and affordable to individuals, companies, and governments around the world, has been named to FORTUNE’S 2021 IMPACT 20. Emeritus is the only education company on the list.
The new Fortune list is dedicated to the belief that a company does not have to be a business behemoth to succeed with a world-changing innovation. This list, now in its second year and powered by TPG’s The Rise Fund, showcases venture- and private-equity-backed startups that are tackling key social and environmental issues as part of their business models in order to make a positive impact and help make people’s lives better.
The methodology for selection was based on four criteria:
- Potential Impact: How substantial is the potential impact of the company’s actions in remediating a problem or unmet need?
- Business Viability. How likely it is that the company’s business model will ultimately be successful on a continuing operating basis, and to what extent will remediate a problem or unmet need contribute to that success?
- Innovation and Leadership. To what degree is the company a leader in its category? How pioneering is its approach? Does the scale of its solution match the scale of the problem it is addressing?
- Track Record. What is the company’s time frame for making a substantial impact? More credit will be given to startups that have established a track record of addressing the social or environmental concerns on which they are focused.
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged across the globe and in-person learning shut down, Emeritus’ work in online professional education became more critical than ever. And now, with massive labor shortages in the U.S. globally and with the World Economic Forum identifying reskilling and upskilling of works as a top priority to fill this tremendous gap, Emeritus is playing an essential role as the pioneer of short private online courses, SPOCS, including bootcamps, industry-specific professional certification courses, and senior executive programs.
“Emeritus was built on the belief that education is transformative,” said Ashwin Damera, co-founder and CEO of Emeritus. “It’s been a year of tremendous growth as we continue to expand our global outreach to bring education from top tier universities to more people than ever before. We are honored to be recognized by Fortune as a company that is making progress in addressing inequality, especially education inequality.”
Since its founding, Emeritus has educated more than 250,000 individuals across 80+ countries through partnerships with more than 50 of the world’s top universities, and expanded into K12 education with the acquisition of iD Tech, the leading STEM education company in the country.
About Emeritus
Emeritus is committed to teaching the skills of the future by making high-quality education accessible and affordable to individuals, companies, and governments around the world. It does this by collaborating with more than 50 top-tier universities across the United States, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, India and China. Emeritus’ short courses, degree programs, professional certificates, and senior executive programs help individuals learn new skills and transform their lives, companies and organizations. Its unique model of state-of-the-art technology, curriculum innovation, and hands-on instruction from senior faculty, mentors and coaches has educated more than 250,000 individuals across 80+ countries. Founded in 2015, Emeritus, part of Eruditus Group, has more than 1,400 employees globally and offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Singapore, Palo Alto, Mexico City, New York, Boston, London, and Dubai. Following its $650 million Series E funding round in August 2021, the company is valued at $3.2 billion, and is backed by Accel, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Leeds Illuminate, Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, and Bertelsmann.
