What Student First Technologies does

Student First Technologies, LLC is a Bloomington, Indiana-based financial technology SaaS company that builds software infrastructure for K–12 education choice programs. It serves state agencies, nonprofit Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs), families, schools, and education vendors with three core product lines: GO SGO for tax-credit scholarship administration, the Theodore platform for Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and microgrants, and the TheoPay smart debit card plus a Mastercard-branded debit card issued through Bangor Savings Bank. The company claims the platform is the system of record for over $500 million in tax credit scholarship funding across 15+ states, with QuinnIQ, a human-in-the-loop machine learning expense verification module, available either integrated with Theodore or as a standalone licensed API. The technology stack is described as a cloud-based SaaS platform built primarily on Ruby on Rails with PostgreSQL, MySQL, and NoSQL databases, augmented by Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure and a proprietary pre-authorization payment engine.

Name

Student First Technologies

Legal name

Student First Technologies, LLC

Website

https://studentfirsttech.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Funding Administration Software

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

K–12 SIS & District Administration Platforms (EDAFAEAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Student Billing, Invoicing & Account Statements (EDALAJAC), Student Information Systems (SIS) & School Administration Platforms (EDAJAMAB)

Keywords

• Education funding software
• Scholarship management platform
• Education savings accounts
• Tax credit scholarships
• K-12 edtech SaaS

Headquarters

HQ city

Bloomington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. ESA Program Administration Platform: Subscription-based SaaS fees for state agencies and nonprofits to use the Theodore platform for managing Education Savings Account programs. Pricing scales with program size. Includes digital wallets, payment processing, and administrative dashboard.
2. Tax Credit Scholarship Platform: Subscription-based SaaS for Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) to manage tax credit scholarship programs. Includes donor management, student verification, fund disbursement, and tax reporting.
3. QuinnIQ Licensing: Available as standalone product for licensing to state and non-profit ESA administrators, either as integral component of Theodore platform or as standalone API for administrators not exclusively using Theodore.
4. Microgrant Program Administration: End-to-end solution for microgrant programs with flexible customization for program administration requirements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Student First Technologies provides cloud-based SaaS platforms for administering K-12 education funding programs, including Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), microgrants, and tax credit scholarships. Its Theodore platform handles eligibility verification, applications, digital wallets, integrated payments, provider marketplaces, and reporting for state agencies and nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations. The company complements this with the GO SGO scholarship administration software, the QuinnIQ machine-learning expense verification system, and the TheoPay pre-authorization payment engine.

Product overview

Student First Technologies offers a unified platform-plus-modules architecture centered on the Theodore platform. Theodore serves as the core end-to-end system for managing education funding programs (ESAs, microgrants, tax credit scholarships), with digital wallets, real-time payments, and administrative dashboards. QuinnIQ, an ML-powered human-in-the-loop expense verification module, integrates with Theodore or operates standalone via API. GO SGO is the flagship product for tax credit scholarship administration, while the upcoming Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) program (launching January 2027) will extend the platform for federal-level operations. TheoPay powers the proprietary smart debit card system. Banking services are provided through Bangor Savings Bank with Mastercard debit cards for family spending.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Theodore: End-to-end ESA platform for managing education savings accounts, featuring applications, digital wallets, real-time payments, provider marketplace, and administrative dashboard.
• GO SGO
• QuinnIQ
• TheoPay

Products and services

• Theodore Platform End-to-end, white-label-ready modular SaaS platform for managing education funding programs including ESAs, microgrants, and tax credit scholarships. Features applications with integrated identity verification, digital wallets, integrated payments, real-time reporting, and configurable program controls for state agencies and nonprofit administrators.
• GO SGO Tax credit scholarship administration software for Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). System of record for over $500,000,000+ in tax credit scholarship funding, the only software matching donations to tax-credit scholarships while providing schools with real-time financial data, donor processing, and compliance reporting.
• QuinnIQ Human-in-the-loop machine learning-powered expense verification system for ESA administrators. Reviews submitted expenses, assigns confidence scores, and flags uncertain results for human review. Available as an integrated Theodore feature or as a standalone API plug-in for licensing to state and non-profit ESA administrators.
• Microgrants Administration Platform Platform for states and nonprofits to run parent-directed microgrant education funding programs. Includes verified learning providers, streamlined payments, a provider marketplace, automated reporting, budgeting tools, and integrated mobile-friendly experience for parents.
• Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) Program Support End-to-end technology to run and scale Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) operations for SGOs, supporting 100% refundable federal tax credit donations to qualified scholarship-granting organizations and disbursement of educational scholarships to families.

Quantifiable outcome

• 6 hours per employee returned daily through QuinnIQ automation
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability3 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Bangor Savings BankcoreTechnology or IntegrationBanking services partner providing FDIC-insured depository services for Student First Technologies. The Student First Technologies Mastercard Debit Card is issued by Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to license by Mastercard International Incorporated. Banking-as-a-service features enable the company's payment infrastructure.
• Mastercard InternationalcoreTechnology or IntegrationLicensor of Mastercard debit card technology used for TheoPay smart debit card system. Enables families to spend education funds anywhere Mastercard is accepted.
• ApriominorOthersNationally recognized advisory firm specializing in SOC audits for high-growth SaaS and fintech companies. Conducted independent SOC 2 Type II audit for Student First Technologies.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• FACTS (Nelnet): FACTS provides tuition management, financial needs assessment, and family/account management for K-12 schools and ESA-adjacent programs; it is both a documented SFT integration partner and a direct competitor for school payment workflows.
• MySchoolBucks: MySchoolBucks is a K-12 payments and account management platform used by schools and districts; it overlaps with SFT's payment, family account, and pre-authorization functionality in the school-choice ecosystem.
• TADS: TADS is a tuition aid data services and school administration platform that competes with SFT for K-12 financial management, aid administration, and family account workflows.
• Odyssey: Odyssey is referenced in the SFT dataset as a larger ESA competitor serving roughly 235,000 students; it competes head-to-head for state ESA and scholarship administration contracts.
• ClassWallet: ClassWallet is a direct competitor in ESA and school-choice program administration, providing spending management and compliance tools to state agencies and schools — the same core customer and use case as Student First Technologies' Theodore platform.

Broad incumbents

• Blackbaud: Blackbaud is a large incumbent in nonprofit and education fund management, offering donor management, CRM, and fund disbursement tools that overlap with SFT's SGO/GO platform for scholarship-granting organizations.
• PowerSchool: PowerSchool is the dominant K-12 student information and administration platform, with expanding payments and choice-program functionality that brings it into SFT's competitive perimeter at the district/state level.

Emerging players

• MyScholarApp: MyScholarApp is an emerging ESA/scholarship management application focused specifically on school-choice programs — narrower than SFT but increasingly competitive for state and SGO contracts.
• ScholarChip: ScholarChip is an emerging K-12 platform providing school management, payments, and student ID/access tools, with overlap to SFT's identity, payment, and family account workflows.

Others

• Step Up For Students: Step Up For Students is a large Florida-based SGO that administers multiple scholarship programs; it is also a potential customer or partner (rather than a tech competitor) and represents the scale of the SGO market SFT is targeting.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/StudentFirstHQ
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/student-first-technologies

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Student First Technologies