Laws are constantly being revised to provide the best education to students across the country. While these new education policies are generally helpful, they are often difficult to implement and hard for parents to understand.
That's where Odyssey comes in. The company has developed an end-to-end public funding distribution and e-commerce platform for program management that eases access to education services such as school tuition, tutoring, technology and extracurricular enrichment.
One would think that with this technology, states would race to get on board, but alternative education is a fairly controversial topic for some because it goes beyond the traditional public school system.
Some advocate for allowing students to attend any school they choose, whether that be religious private schools, charter schools, home schools, or other small learning environments, and giving federal funding to students. The global pandemic has also taught us that education needs flexibility, which has paved the way for companies like Prenda to offer a way for someone to start their own “microschool.”
Issues in implementing education policies
Odyssey founder and CEO Joseph Conner knows this all too well: He began his career as a teacher in low-income charter schools in Washington, DC, Philadelphia and San Jose, before moving on to law school and serving as a consultant on early education choice policy in Indiana, Louisiana and Florida.
Most states have an amendment passed in the late 19th century called the Blaine Amendment, which aimed to ban public funding for public schools. Connor said in 2020 Espinoza v. Montana Department of Taxation The case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that funding policies that discriminated against schools on the basis of religious status violated the First Amendment, “paved the way for the policies we help implement today,” he said.
Following the ruling, Connor started his own network of schools, where he saw first-hand how difficult it was to implement new education policies, but also how beneficial they could be for parents when done right.
“States have tried to do it on their own, but it's been incredibly complicated,” Connor told TechCrunch. “In some cases, they've had to work with traditional software vendors that weren't well-equipped to implement this particular policy.”
Building a foundation for facilitating school choice
So he founded Odyssey three years ago as a technology startup to help states in several ways: First, to educate parents about what education savings account programs are, who is eligible, and how to apply. Second, to manage the application process, working with state agencies to craft application questions, handle the identity verification process, and ensure schools receive tuition payments.
“Historically, one of the biggest obstacles to adoption has been identity verification,” Connor said. “Identity verification is a very time-consuming process. Imagine a state asking you to provide your birth certificate or driver's license. You might have to find a scanner, upload it, and wait anywhere from a few weeks to up to 60 days to hear whether you're eligible.”
Instead, Odyssey's technology, which Connor touts as “the nation's first real-time identity verification technology,” is secure and scalable: Instead of the industry standard of 30 to 60 days, the company can let parents know whether they're eligible and how much they'll get within five minutes of applying.
States can monitor and audit the entire process to reduce fraud and misuse, and one of the major concerns of states administering these types of programs is making sure parents are using the funds for the intended purpose.
To achieve this, Odyssey's platform includes a closed, private marketplace of vendors where state-regulated products and services can be purchased using education savings accounts. The company handles payment processing and customer support for these vendors, and then performs data analysis for the state.
Expanding to more states
The company serves more than 130,000 students in three states — Iowa, Missouri and Idaho — and is in talks with several other state governments.
Odyssey, which pays a fee to states, usually per student, tripled its revenue last year.
Now, the company has hired several key executives and is looking to add to its engineering staff. To help make that happen, Odyssey recently raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Bradley Tusk of Tusk Venture Partners, with additional investments from existing investors Katherine Boyle of Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Kohlmann of Cubit Capital, and Ben Ling of Bling Capital.
Connor said investors were particularly interested in Odyssey's work on real-time identity verification. Currently, the company is only working in the education sector, but he said it sees plenty of work for the next few years. But with features like a digital wallet and a state-regulated marketplace, there's also the opportunity to offer additional programs to states.
The new funding will also enable the company to expand its geographic reach, which will include expanding in states it already serves and expanding into new states.
“We want to influence policy, explain to states that don't currently have programs why it's important to have these programs and help states run these programs more efficiently,” Connor said. “We strongly believe that the best way to empower parents is through these types of programs, so we want to make sure these programs are available to everyone.”
