Jason Palmer

New Markets is one of America's leading impact venture capital firms. As a double-bottom line investor, we focus on innovative, growth stage education and workforce technology companies that improve people-centered outcomes while building profitable organizations. My focus is on fund strategy and development, as well as supporting portfolio companies with operational expertise and industry relationships.... read more

Led a team of outstanding industry experts and served as U.S. Education lead on the Foundation's Program Related Investment (PRI) Committee. Together we were responsible for discovering and investing in promising solutions with the potential to transform higher education to dramatically improve college completion and affordability, especially for low-income and minority students. Our portfolio included personalized learning, online and blended learning solutions, adaptive courseware, breakthrough models, student coaching/advising, competency-based learning, credit transfer and digital credentials.... read more

New Markets is one of the leading education technology-focused venture firms in the U.S. During my first stint with the company, I conducted due diligence on tens of potential investments, advised the leadership teams of great education technology companies in the portfolio (Presence Learning, Graduation Alliance) and founded a new startup named Credential.me that aims to help students earn college credit, badges and certifications that advance their careers.... read more

During my tenure at Kaplan, I had three major roles with increasing responsibility:(1) Initially, I served as General Manager of Kaplan's $12M high school private tutoring business, which helps more than 5,000 students improve their SAT and ACT scores each year. During my tenure, three of our students received perfect scores on the SAT or ACT, the average student improved their SAT score by 245 points, and profitability improved by more than 15% each year. (2) Later I was promoted to advise the leadership teams of eight Kaplan Ventures companies, eventually serving as Interim President of two turnarounds within the portfolio (both of which were successfully reorganized and divested). During this phase, my role focused on business strategy, financial analysis, executive recruiting, product management, enterprise sales strategy and acquisitions.(3) Finally I was offered a chance to reboot and lead Kaplan's corporate venture capital effort -- where I identified, invested in, and served on the Boards of three high-growth education technology companies.... read more

Led a world-class Business Development team that signed and managed strategic partnerships with Scantron, The Princeton Review, Kaplan, ETS, Excelsior, AHA! Interactive, and others that accounted for 25% of SchoolNet’s sales growth during my tenure. Also led the effort to acquire and integrate AHA! Interactive.... read more