Strategic Education, Inc. Signal Labs: Commercial Pilot Program

Let’s define the future of work, together. Strategic Education, Inc. Signal Labs partners with startups to create accelerated pathways to commercial success by providing an environment to test and grow promising products.

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Leverage our expertise in the education space

Strategic Education, Inc. serves over 100,000 students globally and helps 1,400+ employer partners upskill and retain their workforce by providing access to tuition savings and education benefits.

LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator, a nationally recognized edtech accelerator known for its deep expertise in cultivating and scaling high-impact learning innovations.

Rethink Education, is a venture capital firm investing in companies that expand human potential and economic mobility at scale, backing founders building enduring businesses at the intersection of technology, capability, and access — where innovation creates measurable advantage for people who have historically been overlooked by traditional systems.

New Markets Venture Partners, is a leading, growth-stage, double bottom-line investor that scales transformative technology companies that improve education and workforce outcomes, resulting in superior financial returns.

Gain direct access to SEI’s vast adult learning ecosystem

We connect pilot-ready startups with our ecosystem of schools, companies, and investors to help you test, validate, and scale — with the potential for long-term partnership.

Why Signal Labs?

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Gain robust user feedback and data: Increase your company's proof of value by gathering insights from SEI's large student base and interconnected academic ecosystem.

Global testing environment: Test and refine your product through access to our global community.

Leverage our expertise: Gain visibility, feedback and insights from top leaders in professionally focused higher education.

Access decision makers: Fast-tack your path to user expansion and enterprise contracts.

How it works

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Programs are 1-2 terms

We’ll select 2-4 companies per program

Participants are guaranteed an unpaid pilot with at least one Strategic Education business unit. Successful pilots may lead to future commercial partnership opportunities

Gain structured feedback, usage data, and implementation insights from the pilot to validate your solution and refine your product

Areas of focus

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For learners

For organizations

Experiential learning

Bridging the education-to-employment gap

AI fluency

Credentialing and outcomes tracking

Improve learner support and outcomes

Sales and marketing acceleration

Modularize content

Student acquisition tools

Nondegree pathways

Reskilling/upskilling

Allied health

Operational efficiency

AR/VR

Skills assessment

The process

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Our process includes discovery, procurement review, a pilot period, evaluation, and a final decision about the partnership.

Discovery: Submit your application for Signal Labs.

Evaluation: Gather insights, analytics, and feedback from the pilot. Key SEI Stakeholders will review outcomes and assess impact.

Procurement: If selected, your company will enter SEI’s procurement review. This includes meeting IT security standards, completing executive and legal approvals, defining requirements and objectives, and testing your technology in preparation for deployment.

Decision: A final decision will be made on whether to continue to or expand the partnership.

Pilot: Work with the SEI partner team to define goals and success metrics. Your users will be trained, and product performance will be monitored throughout the pilot period.