IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Lumos Capital Group, LLC
Education
Entrepreneurship and Job Creation
Workforce Development, Upskilling and RetrainingFirm Overview
Lumos Capital Group invests in growth-stage technology companies in the global education and human capital development market. Lumos invests in companies that are bringing transformative products and services to improve the quality of and access to education, training and talent, from early childhood education to workforce development. Lumos leads both growth recapitalizations as well as minority growth rounds, and focuses on companies with proven scalable impact. Lumos employs a model of deep partnership to help companies achieve their potential. We believe that businesses in this sector are capable of both delivering compelling financial returns while creating positive social impact by enhancing economic mobility and enabling individuals and communities to achieve their fullest potential. The firm was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in New York City.
Years of Operation: 3 – 4 years
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: 25% – 49%
Investing in innovative companies in the human capital sector — a sector that includes education, workforce development, talent and knowledge services — means investing in human potential, at both the individual and the societal levels, and will ultimately lead to greater human flourishing.
We live in an era of dramatic technological progress, where children must be educated for jobs that don’t yet exist, and workers must continuously adapt to a changing environment. Yet much of our education systems remain stuck in the past. We believe that unlocking human potential — from birth through lifelong learning, from school to enterprise — is the challenge and opportunity facing every nation on earth. Lumos Capital partners with entrepreneurs who are reimagining how we create human capital in the 21st century. Over the past few decades, many innovative companies have developed products and services that increase the quality of and access to high quality education and training, and these companies need sector-focused growth partners who can provide not only capital but deep industry expertise and networks to help them scale their impact. Lumos was founded to meet this need.
Lumos differentiates itself through its deep sector focus and flexible growth equity strategy. The lower middle market in the sector is often overlooked by generalist growth equity firms, but Lumos leverages its sector expertise, networks, and thematic approach to identify promising growth companies. This gives the firm a proprietary deal pipeline, providing a distinct sourcing advantage. Additionally, Lumos’s flexible capital approach allows it to tailor investments across various transaction types, including minority financings, growth recapitalizations, and buyouts, adapting to the specific capital needs of high-potential companies. The team’s backgrounds in sector-focused banking, consulting, operations, and private equity enable it to provide unique value to portfolio companies through active partnerships in growth strategy, M&A, recruitment, and global expansion. This hands-on approach helps portfolio companies accelerate growth, access new markets, and attract stronger talent, leading to better outcomes.
Investment Example
English Language Learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing K-12 student group in the United States. However, ELLs experience large achievement gaps relative to non-ELL students. Many districts and schools struggle to serve these students due to insufficient teacher resources; they also struggle to maintain compliance with the federal regulations that hold schools accountable for their ELL students’ progress in achieving English language proficiency and overall academic performance. Lumos invested in Ellevation Education, a software company that creates products and tools to serve ELL program administrators, teachers, and students, and to help address this achievement gap. Ellevation has served over 1.5M students and 200K educators in more than 1,500 school districts in the US, and has become the clear market leader in this category, with both exceptional social impact as well as strong financial success. Website: https://ellevationeducation.com/
Leadership and Team
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James Tieng – Managing Partner and Co-Founder More Info
With +15 years of investing experience, James has led and completed 17 platform transactions (majority and minority deals) and deployed +$1.6 billion of equity in education, software, business services, and digital media companies. His investments have ranged in enterprise value from less than $10 million to over $1 billion. James has served as a member or observer of the Board of Directors for 15 public and private companies. |
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Victor Hu – Managing Partner and Co-Founder More Info
Victor has +18 years of finance, investing, and industry experience. Prior to Lumos, he was Managing Director and Global Head of Education Technology & Knowledge Services Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. As a co-founder, he led a global team that advised, financed, and invested in leading global education and education technology companies, completing over $50 billion in transactions. Victor also has experience as an emerging markets private equity professional and an M&A attorney. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
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Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
100%
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Our diligence process is designed to deepen our understanding of the prospective company’s thesis to improve outcomes for students and educators, which we assess alongside the company’s business model. We put a premium on services that benefit marginalized communities, and look to uncover opportunities to more deeply embed accessibility and outcomes into the product or service. For example, one of our key reasons for partnering with OnlineMedEd (OME) was to improve diversity of medical practitioners in the U.S. to help address health outcome disparities. OME does this by ensuring diverse representation in patient and practitioner case studies to create more inclusivity within medical schools. We formalize accountability with portfolio companies through explicit conversations with CEOs and impact side letters. We always ideate and co-create the appropriate accountability with CEOs as Lumos may be the first investor to ask for this accountability around impact.
Since inception, Lumos has proactively sought diverse entrepreneurs and teams. We participated in VC/PE industry initiatives such as NAIC, AAAIM and Impact Capital Managers in addition to Education sector specific accelerator programs such as AT&T Aspire, StartED, Village Capital, Techstars, and Onramp, among others that prioritize women and founders of color. We continuously build relationships with earlier stage impact funds that are values-aligned. Our diligence process is designed to deepen our understanding of the company’s thesis to improve outcomes for students and educators, especially marginalized communities. This includes impact scoring within our investment rubric, which is applied to each potential investment. In addition, we collect and report on diversity metrics for both our portfolio companies and the companies we evaluate. We then share these metrics with our LPs in our quarterly fundraising reports and annual impact report.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
Learn More
1460 Broadway, New York, NY 10036 USA
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