| Invested through |
|
|---|---|
| Asset Classes | Listed equity |
| Impact strategy | Impact Equities and Bonds |
| ISIN code | US86333M1080 |
| Industry group | Consumer Discretionary |
| Aligned with SDGs |
Stride is a US education services company providing virtual and blended learning. Its products aim at helping its clients to attract, enroll, educate, track progress and support students. The company's clients are primarily public and private schools, school districts, and charter boards. Additionally, it offers solutions to employers, government agencies and consumers. The company operates in two segments. General education (84% of revenues, including School-as-a-service, Stride Private Schools and Learning Solutions) mainly serves the K-12 part of the market and is focused on core subjects (math, English, science and history).
Career learning (16% of revenues, including Stride Career Prep school-as-a-service, Career Learning Solutions and Adult Learning) specifically focuses on middle and high school students and provides content pathways that include job-ready skills and work experiences and, for high school students, that can lead toward an industry certification and/or college credits. Founded in 2000 as K12 Inc, the company changed its name to Stride in December 2020 to reflect its aim to grow beyond the K-12 market and support lifelong learning from kindergarten through adulthood.
Investment rationale
Stride delivers a positive impact with all its products in two ways: through individual empowerment and (to a lesser extent) technological development and inclusion.
On the one hand, Stride adds to individual empowerment because the company facilitates the access to education by improving the traditional educational offering. The company does so via both segments. Firstly, the k-12 online/blended segment is a long-term solution for students that need a more flexible service (e.g., working from home). Secondly, its career prep school as a service allows students to start preparing early for their careers and/or provide special students (e.g., gifted students) with additional material to help them evolve in a more adequate environment. Thirdly, Stride also helps professionals to evolve during their career through its adult offerings.
Finally, Stride adds to technological development as well as inclusion as it operates online and is thus easily accessible from almost everywhere. This also allows decentralised population to access high quality education.