Strategic Education, Inc. and Leading Education Investors Seek Edtech Innovators for Second Signal Labs Cohort

Testing, Measuring and Scaling Underway for First Cohort

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Strategic Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA), a global leader in higher education and workforce development, today issued a call for applications for the second cohort of Strategic Education, Inc. Signal Labs (“Signal Labs”), an edtech innovation and future of work commercial pilot program supported by LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator, as well as new additions Rethink Capital Partners and New Markets Venture Partners. Designed to accelerate breakthrough solutions in learning and employment, Signal Labs connects promising startups with investors and education leaders while providing direct access to Strategic Education's global portfolio of students, institutions, employers, and education technology platforms for product testing, validation, and potential scale. Selected startups will get immediate visibility from all venture partners.

Joining LearnLaunch in support of Signal Labs are Rethink Capital Partners and New Markets Venture Partners, investors with a shared commitment to expanding human potential and economic mobility through innovation. Rethink Capital Partners and New Markets Venture Partners bring deep experience identifying and scaling breakthrough education and workforce technology companies. Their participation strengthens Signal Labs' ability to connect emerging innovators with capital, expertise, and pathways to commercial growth across Strategic Education's portfolio.

• “With an active portfolio of more than 50 companies across the education and workforce landscape, we are pleased to connect relevant founders with this opportunity. As long-time champions of the edtech ecosystem, we are equally excited to help spread the word and support innovation across the broader community,” said Tetyana Astashkina, General Partner at LearnLaunch. “Helping companies scale to serve major institutions requires specialized knowledge and practical guidance. SEI's commitment to hands-on support is what makes Signal Labs valuable.”
  
  
• “We partnered with Strategic Education, Inc. because of their track record building career-relevant learning programs that meet workers where they are,” said Sneha Kasuganti, Principal at New Markets Venture Partners. “By combining our reach and ecosystems, we can scale the interventions proven to bridge the education-to-employment gap, while keeping learner and employer feedback in the loop.”
  
  
• “What excites us most about this collaboration is the opportunity for these pilots with SEI institutions to help our companies build meaningful relationships and explore future collaboration within the higher education ecosystem,” said Monique Malcom-Hay, Partner at Rethink Capital Partners.

Signal Labs pairs growth-stage education and future-of-work startups with Strategic Education, Inc.’s global ecosystem, which includes Capella University, Strayer University, Torrens University, Sophia Learning, and Workforce Edge, so they can test, measure, and scale their products with real learners, faculty, and employer partners.

The first cohort, which launched in June 2026, includes Internexxus, an AI-powered internship and entry-level job-search platform. “The opportunity to work directly with the Strayer and Capella career services teams allows us to better understand their students' needs and collaboratively explore how AI can enhance, not replace, the personalized support they already provide,” said Tauseef Khan, Founder & CEO of Internexxus. “We're equally excited to learn from the participating institutions, gain insights into student engagement and career center workflows, and use those learnings to continue refining a solution that delivers measurable value for both learners and career services teams."

Virtual Internships, a global platform that guarantees real-world, project-based work experience for learners, partnered with Signal Labs as part of its first cohort and received both domestic and international exposure through its work with U.S.-based Capella University as well as Australia-based Torrens University. "The labor market is shifting fast, and employers increasingly want proof of skills, not just credentials. That's what makes this partnership exciting,” said Jillian Low, Chief Strategy Officer of Virtual Internships. “Our pilots with Capella and Torrens embed guaranteed, structured internships directly into the learner journey, and early engagement has been encouraging. Long term, we see this as infrastructure we're building together with Strategic Education, Inc. -- growing programs, expanding access, and generating the outcome data that shows what experiential learning can do at scale."

Every Signal Labs participant is guaranteed a pilot with at least one Strategic Education division. The purpose of the program is to help participating startups validate and refine their solutions in a real-world environment, generating actionable data, user insights, and measurable outcomes that can strengthen product performance and commercial positioning. Data and insights generated during the pilot are shared with the partner company. Pilots are conducted as part of the Signal Labs program and do not include a paid commercial engagement.

“Signal Labs is designed to help promising innovations move beyond ideas and into real-world application,” said Karl McDonnell, CEO of Strategic Education. “Through our first cohort, we're seeing how direct access to learners, faculty, employers, and measurable outcomes can help companies refine their solutions and accelerate growth. As we look to launch our second cohort, we're seeking innovators whose technologies can strengthen learning, improve workforce readiness, and expand economic opportunity at scale.”

Signal Labs prioritizes startups building in experiential learning, skills assessment, AI fluency, allied health, credentialing and outcomes tracking, AR/VR, non-degree and modular learning pathways, and operational efficiency, with a preference for companies that already have an established product, revenue, and user base.

To Apply: Strategic Education, Inc. Signal Labs is seeking ready-to-scale innovators with proven results and existing customers that align with its mission to expand access to affordable, career-relevant education to working adults and lifelong students.

Applications for the 2026 Winter/Spring Strategic Education, Inc. Signal Labs cycle open August 10, 2026 and close September 11, 2026.

https://www.strategiceducation.com/strategic-education-signal-labs/.

About Strategic Education, Inc. Strategic Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA) (www.strategiceducation.com) is dedicated to helping advance economic mobility through higher education. We primarily serve working adult students globally through our core focus areas: 1) Education Technology Services, developing and maintaining relationships with employers to build education benefits programs providing employees access to affordable and industry-relevant training, certificate, and degree programs, including through Workforce Edge, a full-service education benefits administration solution for employers, and Sophia Learning, which offers low-cost online general education-level courses that are ACE-recommended for college credit; 2) U.S. Higher Education, including Capella University and Strayer University, each institutionally accredited, and collectively offering flexible and affordable associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs; and 3) Australia/New Zealand, comprised primarily of Torrens University. This portfolio of high quality, innovative, relevant, and affordable programs and institutions helps our students prepare for success in today’s workforce and find a path to bettering their lives.