Indy ed tech company lands Flywheel Fund investment

INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — An Indianapolis-based augmented analytics company focused on higher education has secured a $50,000 investment from Flywheel Fund, a capital fund run by The Mill in Bloomington. Invoke Learning says it will use the funding to fuel sales and marketing efforts.

Invoke Learning has developed a platform that uses artificial intelligence to give higher education institutions personalized data insights to help improve enrollment, student retention, engagement, and diversity, equity & inclusion efforts.

The company was founded by Lige Hensley, a former chief technology officer for Ivy Tech Community College, and Brendan Aldrich, a former chief data officer in the California State University system.

Brian Hatton, venture partner for Flywheel Fund, noted the ability of the company’s platform to provide data on “critical but difficult to quantify” factors such as student and faculty engagement.

“In addition to surfacing insights from aggregate data, Invoke Learning’s AI allows schools to measure stress and anxiety levels for each individual student on a daily basis,” Hatton said. “Particularly in the post-COVID era, these are essential predictors of student success.”

To date, the company has raised more than $2 million in funding and has 18 colleges and universities using its platform, including Butler University and the Los Angeles Community College District.

“We had a great 2021, with significant growth in our customer base and their ability to positively impact the full student journey at their institutions,” said Hensley, who serves as CEO. “Our InvokeDataLake and supporting solutions are proving to be beneficial in facilitating improved results. This additional funding from Flywheel Fund will help us invest further in sales and marketing and expand our impact in higher ed.”

Based in Bloomington, Flywheel Fund was created in 2020 to support early-stage and high potential startups based in Indiana.