At Best Startup California we track over 300,000 Californian startups and over 1,500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and organisations we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
We’ve ranked the top 56 Higher Education companies in San Francisco, California. The companies, startups and institutions listed in this article are all exceptional companies, well worth a follow. We have included links to their websites, socials and CrunchBase (if you’re interested in their financials).
We selected the organisations listed in this article based on:
- Track record
- Executive leadership
- Market share
- Innovation
- ESG rating
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Top Higher Education Companies & Startups (San Francisco, California)
Academia.edu
Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers.
Founder(s): Richard Price
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Information Technology, Internet, Social Media
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Holberton School
Holberton School is a project-based alternative to college for the next generation of software engineers.
Founder(s): Julien Barbier, Rudy Rigot, Sylvain Kalache
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education, Software Engineering
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Lambda School
Lambda School trains people to be software engineers for free in exchange for a share of future income.
Founder(s): Austen Allred, Ben Nelson, Caleb Hicks
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: E-Learning, EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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MakeSchool
MakeSchool provides a higher education degree program, creating a more direct connection between education and employment.
Founder(s): Ashu Desai, Jeremy Rossmann
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Career Planning, Higher Education, Training
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Entangled Group
Entangled Group is a privately held company that incubates, invests in, and consults for education ecosystem startups.
Founder(s): Paul Freedman
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: E-Learning, EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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MissionU
MissionU is a college alternative that gives students the skills and experience needed to succeed in today’s competitive working world.
Founder(s): Adam Braun, Mike Adams
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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Foundry College
Foundry College equips working adults with the skills and knowledge they need to excel in jobs that aren’t being displaced by automation.
Founder(s): Stephen Kosslyn
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education
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Scholars App
Scholars App is a platform for scholarship providers to track, manage, and receive more qualified and completed applications.
Founder(s): Traven Watase
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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Interstride
Interstride is an education technology company that provides support services to higher education institutions.
Founder(s): Christian Eder, Nitin Agrawal
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Employment, Higher Education
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Schoold
The world’s #1 college search and counseling mobile app.
Founder(s): Sourabh Ahuja
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Mobile Apps
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UniversityNow
UniversityNow is engaged in developing learning technologies and building universities to back post-secondary education across the globe.
Founder(s): David Meyer, Gene Wade, Salvatore Monaco
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Tutoring
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Adjacent Academies
Adjacent Academies enables liberal arts students to earn college credit while building in-demand tech skills.
Founder(s): Anh Nguyen
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education
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Kurslab
Kurslab is an online education platform bringing instructors and students together in a completely online environment.
Founder(s): Mustafa GENÇOĞLU
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: E-Learning, Education, Higher Education, Music Education, Personal Development, Training, Vocational Education
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NovoEd
NovoEd’s collaborative learning platform enables organizations to design and deliver experiential learning that drives business performance.
Founder(s): Amin Saberi, Farnaz Ronaghi
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Corporate Training, E-Learning, EdTech, Education, Higher Education, Human Resources, MOOC, SaaS, Training
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Empowerly
Empowerly is a platform for personalized college and career guidance
Founder(s): Changxiao Xie, Hanmei Wu
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Information Technology, Internet, Universities
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Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere is a web, SMS, and Twitter polling service that allows users to submit votes or comments to a PowerPoint or Keynote slide.
Founder(s): Brad Gessler, Jeff Vyduna, Sean Eby
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Corporate Training, Education, Enterprise Software, Higher Education, Human Resources, Market Research, Messaging, Presentations, Public Relations, Real Time
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GSV Ventures
GSV Ventures is a venture firm investing company.
Founder(s): Deborah Quazzo
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Big Data, Continuing Education, EdTech, Education, Higher Education, Primary Education, STEM Education, Venture Capital, Virtual Workforce, Vocational Education
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Avela
Software to advance equity in education.
Founder(s): Greg Bybee, Joshua Angrist, Parag Pathak
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: E-Learning, EdTech, Education, Higher Education, Human Resources, Information Technology, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Software
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Bisk Ventures
Bisk Ventures is a new way to look at our future. As we grow as a community, we must invest in our future. Bisk Ventures is the vehicle.
Founder(s): Mike Bisk
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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Kanopy
Kanopy is a operator of online video streaming platform intended to democratize meaningful film and television.
Founder(s): Olivia Humphrey
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Continuing Education, EdTech, Education, Film, Film Distribution, Higher Education, Video, Video on Demand, Video Streaming
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Study Buddy Corporation
Study Buddy is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
Founder(s): Jay Kumar, Nelle Iverson, Nick Smith, Nickalas Smith II
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Enterprise Software, Higher Education, Information Technology, Software, Telecommunications
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Altius Education
Altius Education combines the aspects of a university and a technology company to provide effective and personalized university education.
Founder(s): Paul Freedman
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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Tecille India
Software creating a strong learning foundation for colleges and their students
Founder(s): Joseph Ganobsik, Kapish Manicka, Sahibdeep Mann
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Higher Education
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Ulyngo
Ulyngo is the first multi-channel marketplace that enables universities and college stores to facilitate student life commerce.
Founder(s): Alexander Jekowsky, Ethan Durham
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: E-Commerce, Higher Education, Marketplace
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GrayKea
GrayKea aims to reduce financial stress experienced by college students through sustainable alumni giving.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Internet
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GoFurther Careers
We are a professionally run preparatory company specializing in higher education application and job recruitment strategies for students.
Founder(s): Anthony Gokianluy, Sean Go
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Higher Education
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Woolf
Marketplace, Market Network, EdTech, Higher Education
Founder(s): Joshua Broggi
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Higher Education, Marketplace, Social Network
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Year On
Year On is an education management platform that aims to give confidence, grit, and self-reliance to bridge the gap between high school.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Training
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Gateway Public Schools
Gateway Public Schools helping every one of students is capable of incredible achievement get into college and thrive.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Continuing Education, Education, Higher Education, Secondary Education
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Nerdify
Nerdify is an AI-powered platform and text-based student assistant that provides on-demand help by texting as a personal assistant.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Higher Education, Information Technology
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Impello
Impello delivers challenging, engaging, and relevant educational experiences in the rapidly developing field of technology.
Founder(s): Bevis Cheng
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Career Planning, EdTech, Higher Education, Training
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LifeLaunchr
The world’s first virtual coaching platform for college admissions and college planning
Founder(s): Eric Frothingham, Venkates Swaminathan
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Career Planning, College Recruiting, Consulting, Education, Higher Education
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Scholars.Shop
Helping students fund their education through unique mission driven scholarships and crowdfunding.
Founder(s): Samantha Stuber
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Continuing Education, Crowdfunding, Education, Higher Education, STEM Education, Vocational Education
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Lick-Wilmerding
Lick-Wilmerding develops the head, heart, and hands of highly motivated students from all walks of life.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Secondary Education, STEM Education
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Jaunty.org
Jaunty is the school for human life and interaction.
Founder(s): Eric Waisman
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Consulting, Education, Health Care, Higher Education, Social
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Course Match
Course Match is a direct application of intensive interdisciplinary collaboration among economists, operations researchers.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Higher Education
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IvyTies
An Education Technology company serving prospective international students and higher education institutions around the world.
Founder(s): Abhishek Sheetal, Krishna Savani
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Higher Education, Social Network
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Student Loans Guy
Student Loans Guy helps people save money on student loans by recommending a personalized loan repayment plan.
Founder(s): Brandon Yahn
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Financial Services, FinTech, Higher Education, Personal Finance
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Startup Experience
The Startup Experience is a two-day crash course on high-impact entrepreneurship and social innovation.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Communities, Education, Higher Education, Social Impact
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UProspie
UProspie connects students to make higher education more accessible.
Founder(s): Jason Li
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Social Network
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Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology
The Sutardja Center supports new venture teams with mentoring, network connections, and Delta prize awards.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Higher Education, Internet, Internet of Things, Non Profit
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La Scuola
La Scuola International School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education
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SFSU Cesar Chavez Student Center
Cesar Chavez Student Center is a non-profit auxiliary organization and an internationally recognized higher education institution.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Non Profit, Universities
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The Bernard Osher Foundation
The Bernard Osher Foundation provides post-secondary scholarship funding to colleges and universities across the nation.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Higher Education, Humanitarian, Non Profit, Social Assistance
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Pirple
Pirple offers to sharpen skills, got courses on Frontend, Backend, Full-Stack, Mobile Dev, Data-Science, DevOps, and Ethical Hacking.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Higher Education, Product Design, Software, Software Engineering
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Entangled Velocity
Entangled Velocity is an education management company that helps early-stage education and learning technology companies catalyze growth.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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Affordable Colleges Online
Affordable Colleges Online is an online portal that provides resources and information to help students find colleges, programs & courses.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: E-Learning, Education, Higher Education, Information Services, Online Portals
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TestMagic
TestMagic specializes in SAT preparation with online classes and programs that help middle-school and high-school students.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Primary Education
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Sftutors
Sftutors is all levels of math and coaching company located in San Francisco.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Charter Schools, Education, Higher Education
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Proof School
Proof School is an educational institution.
Founder(s): Ian Brown
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Education, Higher Education, Secondary Education
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Westhampton Beach School District
Westhampton Beach School District provides primary, secondary & higher education services.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Consulting, Higher Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education
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URx
URx is a university recruiting community that helps companies in recruiting.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Communities, Higher Education, Recruiting, Universities
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Ender Markal Tutoring
Ender Markal Tutoring is a match coaching for higher education company located in San Francisco.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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Mercy High School
Mercy High School empowers women to achieve spiritual, intellectual, and personal development.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: E-Learning, Education, Higher Education, Personal Development, Women’s
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Centro Regional de Educacion Superior
Centro Regional de Educación Superior is a Higher education firm which is the result of the joint effort of the Municipality.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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ScramblerMail
ScramblerMail is s student-founded startup from Stanford University’s computer science, electrical engineering, and business schools.
Founder(s): Christopher Pedregal, Richard Fiedotin
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: EdTech, Education, Higher Education
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