Niche to expand services with $35 million in funding

The online school search platform, Niche, announced this week that it has raised $35 million with plans to expand its services to fit the needs of students amid the covid-19 pandemic.

The Pittsburgh-based company analyzes data from surveys and federal agencies to produce ratings on schools, neighborhoods, colleges and workplaces across the U.S. The website contains more than 100 million ratings and reviews, and was used by more than 50 million people in the last year.

The $35 million was raised through funding led by Radian Capital, a growth stage fund focused on tech services.

“At Radian, we focus on companies that build technology-enabled businesses that redefine industries and Niche is doing exactly that with its modern approach to enrollment marketing for schools,” Weston Gaddy, partner and co-founder of Radian Capital, said in a statement. “We believe that Niche is revolutionizing school search and will lead the way for the future of recruitment, as it continues to gain market share at an impressive pace.”

Niche CEO Luke Skurman said the company will use the money to grow the company’s engineering, sales and marketing teams and expand services on the site.

Right now, Skurman said, Niche is more like a “search book.” Students and families use the site to research schools and colleges, gathering information on academic value, diversity, quality of athletics and more to find the “best-fit education option”.

Right now, Niche has more than 14,000 school clients listed on the site, including several in Western Pennsylvania. Clients include Carnegie Mellon University, Robert Morris University, Point Park and several others.

Skurman said the goal is to allow students to manage other parts of the research and application process when it comes to education. Niche also hopes to expand its client base to include more educational options, including boot camps and vocational academies. This, he said, will be a critical move given they way covid-19 has altered the education sector.

“A lot more students are going to be considering online schools, and we want to include our coverage of online choices in addition to traditional choices, in addition to nontraditional choices,” said Skurman.

The company has surveyed more than 50,000 students and parents to track how school communities and students’ academic plans are being affected by covid-19. The survey results have shown that high school seniors are shifting their college searches and decision making online, and there has been increased interest in attending college close to home – as well as “trepidation about starting college this year.”

Students will rely on the internet to research schools more than ever before, Skurman said. While the education sector is one of the largest in the country, schools have overwhelmingly underinvested in digital marketing. Colleges and universities tend to rely on traditional marketing practices like direct mail, TV and radio.

“Practically overnight, tens of millions of students across the country switched to online classes, standardized testing was canceled, and school tours went virtual for the foreseeable future,” Skurman said in a statement. “Students and families need a reliable way to research and authentically connect with schools online.”

Niche has also accelerated the roll-out of several new free features. The site is updating its virtual platform to better clarify which schools offer online classes and degrees. Niche is also giving schools the opportunity to include links to virtual tours on their site profiles to allow students to explore campus.

“We’ve been seeing these trends for a long time and they will be accelerated in a post-covid-19 reality,” Skurman said in a statement. “We’re now more confident than ever in our ability to successfully help schools navigate the changing digital landscape and connect with more best-fit students.”