Upswing

What Upswing does

Upswing International, Inc. is a private B2B SaaS company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that sells a holistic student support platform to 125+ colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Its primary customer base is Historically Black Colleges and Universities (16 partners), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (29 partners), and community colleges, with selected state universities and nonprofits such as Hope Chicago. The platform bundles modular offerings including a 24/7 tutoring network across 400+ subjects, assignment review, advising and early alerts, mental health teletherapy and peer support, a basic-needs module integrated with Single Stop, a Domo-powered admin BI tool, and Ana, an AI-powered SMS virtual assistant that runs proactive engagement campaigns, identifies at-risk students, and escalates to human staff.

The underlying technology stack is built around Ana's AI/NLP capabilities (predictive analytics, anomaly detection, recommendation, and generative SMS messaging) running on Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services infrastructure, with HIPAA-compliant Zoom for teletherapy, Zendesk for support ticketing, and PayPal for tutor payouts. The platform is WCAG 2.2 AA conformant with a published VPAT 2.5, TX-RAMP certified as a Texas cloud product, and contractually FERPA- and GDPR-compliant. Ana's effectiveness has been validated externally through a randomized controlled trial showing a 13.7% relative increase in graduation rates for students who engaged with the assistant.

Upswing monetizes via quote-based, multi-year institutional subscriptions, with modular pricing that allows buyers to combine Tutoring, Ana, Advising, Mental Health, Basic Needs, and Workshops modules, plus a new low-cost 12-month Dare to Fly pilot for Ana. The go-to-market is a sales-led enterprise motion targeted at higher education administrators, supported by the annual Equity in Education virtual conference, monthly webinars, SEO-driven content, and co-marketing with foundation and impact-investor partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Strada Education, Imaginable Futures, and Social Finance. To date, the company has raised approximately $11-13M across seed, venture, grant, and impact-investor rounds, including a $5M round in 2021 and a $2.6M Social Finance UP Fund investment in September 2024.

Name

Upswing

Legal name

Upswing International, Inc.

Website

https://upswing.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Upswing provides a holistic student support platform to 125+ colleges and universities, primarily HBCUs, HSIs, and community colleges, combining 24/7 tutoring, an AI-powered SMS assistant (Ana), mental health teletherapy, advising, and basic needs tools to improve retention and graduation for non-traditional students.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Institution Subscriptions (B2B SaaS): Recurring contracts with colleges and universities (HBCUs, HSIs, community colleges) for access to the holistic student support platform. Pricing is quote-based, modular (tutoring, advising, mental health, Ana, basic needs), and typically multi-year. Mental health module sold as one affordable price for unlimited institution-wide access. Ana offered as 12-month guided pilot program.
2. Per-session / pay-as-you-go alternatives for Mental Health (displaced by subscription): Upswing explicitly contrasts its per-institution subscription mental health pricing with industry-standard per-session pricing, which it argues is unaffordable. Sessions are 50 minutes, with credits that roll over between contract years.
3. Ana SMS Engagement Module / Dare to Fly Pilot: Ana sold either as part of full platform subscription or as a low-cost, low-risk 12-month guided pilot program (Dare to Fly) with cohorts beginning Fall 2026, including customized campaigns, surveys, and human escalation support.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Upswing sells a single, unified Holistic Student Support Platform to colleges and universities, combining 24/7 on-demand tutoring, the AI-powered SMS virtual assistant Ana, advising and early alerts, mental health teletherapy and peer support, basic needs resource connection, and writing support. Institutions license the platform modularly and deploy it to their students, faculty, and staff as a wraparound retention and student success system. The company has served over 4 million students across 125+ partner institutions since 2013.

Product overview

Upswing sells a single, unified Holistic Student Support Platform that higher education institutions (HBCUs, HSIs, community colleges, and other partners) deploy to deliver wraparound services to non-traditional and historically marginalized students. The platform is architected as a core retention/learning environment (also referenced in legal documents as the Upswing Virtual Learning Center) plus a portfolio of flexible, mix-and-match modules: Tutoring & Assignment Review, the AI-powered SMS virtual assistant Ana, Advising & Early Alerts, Basic Needs (integrated with Single Stop), Mental Health (integrated with BetterMynd for teletherapy and Togetherall for peer support), Student Workshops, and a Domo-powered admin BI tool. Modules connect through one login, a single set of student/admin/tutor portals, and Ana's proactive engagement layer that ties academic, mental health, basic-needs, and advising outreach into one SMS-based retention workflow. Since 2013, the platform has delivered over 1 million academic support interventions, served 4 million+ students across 125+ partner institutions, and is WCAG 2.2 AA conformant.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ana: AI-powered SMS virtual assistant that proactively engages students with reminders, resource referrals, surveys, and human-backed escalation support to improve retention.
• Upswing Virtual Learning Center

Products and services

• Upswing Holistic Student Support Platform Single, easy-to-use online platform that brings on-campus and remote student support resources together for college and university partners, combining tutoring, Ana SMS engagement, advising/early alerts, basic needs support, mental health teletherapy, peer support, and on-demand video resources into one student/admin/tutor portal.
• Tutoring & Assignment Review All-in-one tutoring module combining the institution's own campus tutors, Upswing's 24/7 tutor network across 400+ subjects, assignment review delivered in under 48 hours, immediate and scheduled tutoring, and on-demand writing/citation video resources.
• Ana AI-powered virtual SMS assistant that proactively engages students via text with reminders, resources, surveys, and encouragement; identifies barriers and at-risk students in real time; and escalates complex or distress cases to a trained human support team. Delivers 13+ proactive campaigns per semester and demonstrated a 13.7% relative increase in graduation rate in a randomized controlled trial.
• Advising & Early Alerts Online advising module enabling easy-to-schedule appointments and empowering advisors to set and track early-alert flags for at-risk students, surfaced in the Upswing admin experience.
• Basic Needs Basic needs support module that connects students to resources for food insecurity, housing, childcare, financial aid, emergency funds, transportation, and other non-academic barriers, integrated with Single Stop's public-benefits and case-management platform.
• Mental Health Mental health support module providing 24/7 teletherapy (50-minute 1:1 sessions via HIPAA-compliant Zoom), peer support affinity groups, and an on-demand library of 160+ short mental health videos, integrated with BetterMynd (teletherapy) and Togetherall (peer support), available to students, faculty, and staff under a single institutional price.
• Upswing Student Workshops Programming layer that brings together academic skill-building, career readiness, and personal growth sessions in a flexible format to engage non-traditional and historically marginalized students.
• Upswing BI Tool (Domo Integration) Cloud-based business intelligence capability, powered by Domo and integrated into the admin experience, that delivers data-driven insights into student engagement, persistence, and platform usage to institutional administrators.
• Upswing Virtual Learning Center Online retention platform referenced in Upswing's Privacy Policy and Terms that connects Upswing's tutor network and institution-specific members for instant messaging, video chat, voice calls, document sharing, and whiteboard-based instruction; the operational core under the Holistic Student Support Platform brand.

Quantifiable outcome

• 13.7% relative increase in graduation rate for students who engaged with Ana (6.6% vs 5.8% control)
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers20 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability10 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• TogetherallcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2025Joint partnership announced April 2, 2025 to expand peer-driven mental health support. Integrates Togetherall's peer-to-peer mental health platform into Upswing's holistic student support model, providing students with accessible, stigma-free peer support as part of the mental health offering.
• DomocoreTechnology or Integration · 1 March 2025Upswing integrated Domo's cloud-based business intelligence platform into its product (announced March 11, 2025) to deliver enhanced admin dashboards, data-driven insights into student engagement, retention, and platform usage.
• Single StopcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Joint partnership announced January 29, 2025. Single Stop is a technology platform that connects individuals and families with eligible public benefits, case management, and wrap-around support. The collaboration expands access to essential resources for non-traditional and historically marginalized students via Upswing's basic needs support offering.
• BetterMyndcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBetterMynd provides online 1:1 teletherapy and on-demand mental health support for students integrated into the Upswing platform. The partnership is part of Upswing's Mental Health module and is referenced as Upswing's mental health provider and partner in webinars, blog posts, and platform copy.
• PayPalcoreTechnology or IntegrationPayPal is integrated as a payment processor for Upswing tutors. Upswing processes tutor payments via PayPal at least two times per month, and PayPal may collect billing information and process 1099-K reporting.
• Google Cloud PlatformcoreTechnology or IntegrationUpswing may store user personal information and files on third-party servers via Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services (per Privacy Policy).
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationUpswing may store user personal information and files on third-party servers via Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services (per Privacy Policy).
• Zoom (HIPAA-compliant)coreTechnology or IntegrationUpswing's teletherapy sessions occur via a HIPAA-compliant Zoom meeting, allowing students to keep their camera off if desired.
• Rice UniversityminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerRice University researchers conducted the case study on Houston Community College analyzing Upswing's impact on academic performance. They found students using Upswing at least once per semester may see GPA increase of ~0.05 points.
• Code the DreamminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCode the Dream presented in Upswing's Equity in Education 2026 conference, sharing how their nonprofit leverages AI to support adult learners (immigrants, first-generation Americans). The session highlighted partnership opportunities around retention and AI in higher ed.
• ParitiiminorGTM or Marketing PartnerDr. Shmona Simpson, CEO of Paritii, delivered the keynote on bias in AI-powered student success tools at the Equity in Education 2026 conference.
• UNCF (United Negro College Fund)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerUNCF's Lu Duong, Director of the STEM Scholars program, partnered with Upswing during Equity in Education 2025 to discuss equity-focused initiatives.
• Texas Department of Information Resources (TX-RAMP)coreOthersUpswing is certified as a TX-RAMP (Texas Risk and Authorization Management Program) cloud product, allowing it to sell to Texas public institutions.

Scale indicators17 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Civitas Learning (Anthology):
• Anthology (Starfish by Hobsons): Anthology's Starfish is the dominant student-success/early-alert platform used by hundreds of US colleges. Directly comparable to Upswing's Advising & Early Alerts module, but as part of a much broader SIS/CRM suite with deeper institutional integration and larger R&D budget.
• EAB Navigate: EAB's Navigate is an enterprise student-success and retention platform sold to large universities and systems. Competes head-to-head with Upswing's holistic retention thesis (advising, alerts, predictive analytics) but with greater scale, advisory services, and budget headroom.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks2 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PLsTU3_DvqDDS0ak2IdeWhU8ZjFA5Ln6CH
• Xx.com/upswing

Compliance7 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds10 records

Investors22 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Upswing