Jolt Notches $14.1M To Expand Pay-As-You-Go MBA Program

Education startup Jolt has notched $14.1M in a Series A funding round to provide an alternative to traditional MBA courses, TechCrunch reported on Sunday (Jan. 13).

The funding round was led by Balderton Capital, with participation from Hillsven Capital and Octopus Ventures. It brings Jolt’s total funding to $23.3 million in three years.

The firm runs three sites in London (Shoreditch, Soho and Liverpool Street), plus seven sites in Israel, and says it has more students than London Business School.

“Higher education is in a bubble in which trillions are being invested in something that works for a small minority of people,” said Jolt Co-Founder and CEO Roei Deutsch. “A staggering $2.3 trillion a year is invested into higher education despite the fact that data shows 79 percent of graduates don’t believe it’s working as it should … At Jolt, we’re creating a high-end, in-person, widely global and affordable higher education platform that people can actually see as an alternative to traditional higher education.”

The company will use the new funds to continue expansion across the U.K. and Israel and to enter the U.S. with the first campus in Manhattan.

Jolt’s business courses strive to attract professionals with undergraduate degrees and at least two years of work experience, or three years of experience without a degree, who want to up-skill or move into a new industry.

With Jolt, students take just the classes they need to build their own diploma. Courses can also be “paused” for financial manageability.

“Students sign up for lessons via the Jolt app and attend these lessons at their nearest campus,” Deutsch said. “Lessons are offered outside of traditional working hours, largely in the evening, to help people study alongside their day job. Once they’ve completed a lesson/section, they are given a qualification that can be used straight away or put towards part of a wider diploma. These lessons and workshops revolve around the practical application of the skills, debates and discussions, role-playing and other interactive tasks.”

Deutsch described Jolt’s instructors as “highly skilled professionals who are currently working for some of the world’s biggest and most innovative companies,” including Google, Netflix, TrustLab and others. “This ensures our curriculum is as up-to-date and as relevant as possible,” he said.