Gaming company Stemuli recently announced that they’d be merging with fellow edtech companies Infinity.careers and Oppti.
With the new partnership, the Black-led companies will focus on offering career navigation tools for students to prosper in the current economy. The founder of infinity.careers, Naomi Thomas, will serve as the Head of Digital for Stemuli with the new merger, while the co-founder of Oppti, Khiry Kemp, will now be the Head of Operations.
Taylor Shead, the founder of Stemuli, will continue to serve as CEO. In 2016, Shead founded the all-Black woman-led company to provide learning opportunities for students that are from underserved communities; the company focuses primarily on linking education with technology. Stimuli offers students a learning education using artificial intelligence and gameplay by building an online educational community.
“This merger marks an important milestone for both Black entrepreneurs and the edtech industry as a whole,” said Shead in a press release. “We are excited to join forces and bring our collective expertise to create a company that truly empowers students and addresses the needs of the education system.”
“We believe that education is the key to unlocking opportunities and driving social and economic mobility, and we are committed to making that a reality for students across the country,” she added.
Per the press release, the idea for the merger reportedly stemmed from a meeting at the career convention Jobs for the Future Entrepreneur in Residence by JFFLabs, the innovation lab of Jobs For the Future. The nonprofit’s focus with the event is to bring entrepreneurs in ed tech together to offer solutions to real-world problems.
“Stemuli is a shining example of what can happen when we bring together and incubate talented and driven entrepreneurs to collaborate and catalyze new ways to support people facing systemic barriers to advancement,” said the executive director of JFFLabs, Kristina Francis, per a statement. “We are thrilled to see the success of our program in action, and we look forward to seeing the impact this merger will have on the future of learning.”
The news of the merger comes approximately one year after Stemuli introduced its Educational Metaverse. With the Educational Metaverse, the company was able to create a metaverse for K-12 students in Dallas Hybrid Prep, the only hybrid school in Texas.
For the project, Shead and the leaders of Stemuli were able to earn over three million dollars in seed funding. Previously, Shead became one of only 95 Black women to earn more than one million dollars in funding.
