GradBridge, a forward-thinking startup reshaping how students and families afford college, has successfully raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., and Acorn Investment Partners, LLC. This investment marks a significant leap forward for the company as it scales its mission to make higher education financing smarter, fairer, and data-driven.

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Empowering Students Through Smarter Financing

Founded and led by Jen O’Donald, GradBridge helps students cross the financial gap between enrollment and graduation. It’s not just another student loan provider - it’s an AI-powered education finance ecosystem that combines predictive analytics, career outcome data, and financial wellness tools.

By partnering with universities, GradBridge provides customized financing models aligned with students’ projected earning potential, not their credit history. That means fairer loan terms, lower default rates, and more transparency across the board.

“Education shouldn’t be a privilege tied to traditional credit systems - it should be an investment in potential,” said O’Donald. “GradBridge is here to modernize that belief into action.”

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Bridging the Gap Between Education and Employment

The global student debt crisis has reached staggering proportions. According to Forbes, total student loan debt in the United States has surpassed $1.77 trillion, with over 43 million borrowers still paying off loans, often decades after graduation. Many of these borrowers face a system that evaluates them based on backward-looking credit scores instead of future income potential.

GradBridge flips that model on its head. By leveraging AI underwriting and real-time labor market data, it aligns financing with expected outcomes. Students pursuing in-demand fields like STEM or healthcare can qualify for lower interest rates and flexible repayment schedules.

This data-backed approach benefits not only students but also universities that partner with GradBridge - helping them boost retention and graduation rates while ensuring students have access to financial stability throughout their academic journey.

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The Founder’s Insight into Building Trust Before Scale

What’s happening at GradBridge is a quiet masterclass in how to build a company in a trust-dependent industry - something most founders underestimate.

When you’re operating in sectors like education or finance, users don’t buy your product first. They buy your credibility. And credibility doesn’t scale through marketing - it scales through consistency.

That’s why GradBridge didn’t start by trying to “disrupt” student loans. It started by building infrastructure that institutions could trust. Instead of going direct-to-consumer from day one, they embedded themselves within universities, aligning their incentives with the very systems they aimed to improve.

This approach teaches a powerful lesson: sometimes the fastest way to scale is to slow down long enough to earn trust from the system you’re entering.

Founders often mistake speed for progress, but in reality, trust compounds faster than growth ever will. Every time GradBridge signed a university partner, it wasn’t just onboarding a client - it was validating its legitimacy in one of the most risk-averse industries in the world.

For founders, that’s the blueprint: in industries built on legacy and skepticism, credibility is your growth engine. Once trust is institutionalized, scale follows naturally - and permanently.

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Rising Demand for Education Financing Solutions

The global education financing market is undergoing explosive growth. According to HolonIQ, global education spending hit $8.3 trillion in 2024 and is on track to exceed $10 trillion by 2030. Within that, private financing solutions are capturing an increasing share as public funding models fail to keep pace with rising tuition costs.

Meanwhile, the student loan market itself is expected to double, growing from $115 billion in 2024 to $235 billion by 2032 (CAGR of ~9.2%). This surge is fueled by higher enrollment rates, online education expansion, and demand for more flexible, data-driven lending models.

Universities are feeling the pressure to innovate as well - over 60% of institutions in the U.S. now report “financial wellness” as a top priority for student success. GradBridge sits at the intersection of these forces, building tools that help both universities and students navigate the future of higher education funding.

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Strategic Backing for Scalable Growth

GradBridge’s $20 million raise is backed by industry heavyweights with deep roots in finance and institutional investing. Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. brings decades of experience in alternative credit and structured finance, while Acorn Investment Partners, LLC adds expertise in growth-stage fintech ventures.

Together, these investors give GradBridge the strategic resources to expand its university partnerships, strengthen its AI risk modeling platform, and enter new markets, including international education finance - a sector projected to surpass $40 billion globally by 2030, according to UNESCO.

The company plans to use this capital to build predictive analytics tools that personalize funding options even further, and to introduce employer-backed repayment programs that tie financing directly to post-graduation career outcomes.

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The Fintech Future of Education

Fintech has already transformed banking, payments, and personal investing. Education finance is next - and GradBridge is setting the standard for what that transformation should look like: personalized, transparent, and powered by data.

By integrating modern financial intelligence into an outdated system, GradBridge is not only democratizing access to education - it’s creating a framework for sustainable lending that benefits students, schools, and investors alike.

It’s a movement that reflects a broader shift in fintech: from disruption to collaboration, where innovation doesn’t fight institutions - it amplifies them.

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The Future of Financial Access

With $20 million in fresh capital, GradBridge is accelerating toward a future where access to education isn’t defined by privilege or parental income but by potential and performance. The company’s technology-driven model is helping students graduate with confidence, not crippling debt.

And in doing so, GradBridge isn’t just helping students cross the financial bridge to education - it’s building the infrastructure for a more equitable generation of learners and leaders.

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