SafeInsights, Rice University

What SafeInsights, Rice University does

SafeInsights is a large-scale education research hub housed at Rice University in Houston, Texas, that enables researchers to study how students learn while preserving student privacy. The platform uses a privacy-preserving architecture that allows analysis of student learning data without revealing student information to researchers or moving data away from the trusted storage locations where it already resides. This approach is designed to resolve the tension between the need for large-scale educational research data and the imperative to protect student privacy.

The organization serves three primary user segments: schools (K-12 and higher education institutions seeking research-informed insights into teaching effectiveness), researchers (academic scholars needing secure access to large-scale learning data), and learning platforms (educational technology companies that want to integrate research-backed features into their products). SafeInsights functions as a central hub connecting these three constituencies through a single research platform.

The business model is non-commercial research infrastructure. SafeInsights is funded by a historic grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-2 program (Cooperative Agreement No. 2153481), which supports a network of 80 institutional partners and collaborators across the nation. The platform distributes through institutional partnerships rather than commercial sales channels, with engagement driven through a community-led go-to-market approach via the website, a mailing list, and a press kit. No commercial pricing is disclosed, and the program operates under Rice University's institutional governance.

Name

SafeInsights, Rice University

Legal name

Rice University

Website

https://safeinsights.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SafeInsights is a privacy-preserving education research hub at Rice University that enables researchers to study student learning without exposing student data, serving schools, academic researchers, and learning platforms through NSF-funded research infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Research Infrastructure

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Student Data Privacy Management & Consent (FERPA/GDPR/COPPA) (EDAFALAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Security, Privacy & Compliance for Live Classes (FERPA/GDPR Controls) (EDAFABAM), Privacy-Preserving On-Device ML (secure enclaves, TEEs, differential privacy) (HDAAAJAH)

Keywords

• Privacy-preserving research
• Education research infrastructure
• Learning data analytics
• Student privacy platform
• Federated learning research

Headquarters

HQ city

Houston

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, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. NSF Research Funding: SafeInsights is funded by a historic investment from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-2 program. This federal funding supports the development of the secure research platform and community of 80 institutional partners.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

SafeInsights is a large-scale education research hub, operated under Rice University and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, that enables researchers to deeply understand how students learn. It uses a privacy-preserving approach that unlocks valuable insights into learning without ever revealing student information to researchers or moving data away from the trusted places where it already safely lives. The platform serves as a central hub connecting schools, researchers, learning platforms, and supporters across a network of 80 institutional partners.

Product overview

SafeInsights is a single, unified research platform developed by Rice University and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The platform enables researchers to gain insights about learning without exposing student information to researchers or moving data from secure locations where it already resides. SafeInsights serves as a central hub connecting schools, researchers, and learning platforms to advance educational research and practice.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SafeInsights Platform A large-scale education research hub, operated under Rice University, that enables researchers to deeply understand how students learn through a privacy-preserving approach that unlocks valuable insights without revealing student information or moving data from trusted locations where it already resides.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• PowerSchool: Major K-12 student information system and educational data platform. Comparable as the dominant holder of trusted student data that integration platforms like SafeInsights must connect with, though purely commercial rather than research-focused.
• Digital Promise: Non-profit ed research and innovation organization working across the U.S. education ecosystem. Comparable as a national-scale education research infrastructure organization, though broader in scope and not focused on privacy-preserving computation.

Direct peers

• Enveil: Privacy-enhancing technology company using secure enclaves and homomorphic encryption for secure search and analytics. Comparable to SafeInsights' privacy-preserving architecture and trusted compute environment approach.
• TripleBlind: Privacy-preserving computation platform enabling analysis of regulated data without decryption. Mirrors SafeInsights' privacy-preserving analytics approach, though applied commercially across healthcare and financial services.
• Duality Technologies: Commercial provider of privacy-preserving data collaboration technologies using secure computation. Directly comparable to SafeInsights' core privacy-preserving data analysis engine, though serving commercial and government clients rather than academic research.
• Dataverse Project (Harvard IQSS): Open-source research data repository platform widely used by academic institutions to share and publish research data. Directly comparable to SafeInsights as research infrastructure for academic communities, though focused on data sharing rather than privacy-preserving computation.
• Vivli: Non-profit clinical research data sharing platform that enables researchers to share and analyze anonymized clinical trial data. Comparable to SafeInsights as a privacy-preserving research infrastructure serving a specific research community with institutional governance.

Others

• EdSurge: Education research and news organization covering the EdTech ecosystem. Adjacent as a research-information intermediary serving the same schools, researchers, and learning platform audiences as SafeInsights.

Emerging players

• OpenMined: Open-source community building privacy-preserving ML tools including federated learning and differential privacy. Comparable to SafeInsights' privacy-preserving technical approach and academic-aligned mission, though broader across domains and not exclusively education-focused.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/safeinsights

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 SafeInsights, Rice University