FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laurel Higbee
lhigbee@schoolventures.com
703.535.3257
School Ventures and Cura Fund Partner to Bridge African Education Gap
New partnership represents for education investment in Africa
(Washington, DC) December 3, 2007 – School Ventures today announced an alliance with the venture philanthropy group Cura Fund. The two will partner on an African Education Markets Initiative to provide a mechanism for stakeholders, from private investors to venture funds to governments, to understand education markets in Africa.
“While a great effort has been put into improving education in Africa,” explained Mubuso Zamchiya, CEO of School Ventures, “the private sector has been plagued by misinformation and missed opportunities. Between a saturated public education sector and an active international finance market, now is the time to harness the private sector in education.”
The alliance between School Ventures and Cura Fund aims to enhance, inform and stimulate education markets across Africa through sustainable business models and improved investor information. The result will be better schools, better education and students who are prepared to participate locally, nationally and internationally.
“We couldn't be more excited,” said Cura Fund co-founder, Denise Ciesielka, about the partnership. “School Ventures is on the cutting edge of sustainable education innovation, which is where we invest. It's a great fit with a promising future for African youth.”
About School Ventures
School Ventures is an education development company based in the Washington DC area. The Company exists to provide better intelligence for the education sector as a way to help school operators, and the investors that support them, make quality investment decisions. School Ventures works to reduce information asymmetries by:
· Assessing education markets across the world;
· Evaluating the performance of private schools and benchmarking them for the marketplace.
· Analyzing public school systems to shed light on the complex relationships between education investment, school performance, and learning outcomes.
About Cura Fund
Cura Fund was started by entrepreneurs who see the potential to solve global problems with sound business principals. Cura Fund works on the issues surrounding health, education and energy. Cura Fund identifies organizations that are willing to lead in solving the difficult problems facing the world's poor by stimulating markets through donor money and by building organizations that are financially sustainable.
