You may be surprised to learn that Nelnet’s corporate venture capital team, Nelnet Ventures, is one of the largest early-stage startup investors in the state of Nebraska. In fact, over the last decade, the accomplishments of Nelnet Ventures are quite impressive.
# of Companies Invested In
Total $ Invested
# of Nebraska-Based Startups Invested In
According to Nelnet Ventures Managing Director Chuck Norris, “We started out in 2006 writing small, angel investment checks. Over the past couple decades, we’ve learned a great deal about corporate venture investing. Today, our thesis has evolved and our portfolio has grown across a variety of industries.”
This team actively searches for new investment opportunities and partners to support. What attracts the attention of the Nelnet Ventures team?
Nelnet’s Investment Thesis
Nelnet’s venture capital team looks for young, promising companies with accelerating growth—and then provides access to Nelnet’s ecosystem, assets, and expertise.
What We Look For
- Early-stage startups with less than $5M revenue
- Great team, market, industry/product, and traction
- Industries that align with Nelnet’s core businesses (consumer lending, loan servicing, payments, and technology with an emphasis in education)
Director of Innovation and Nelnet Ventures team member Brian Ardinger points out that Nelnet has unique flexibility over other corporate investors: “Unlike traditional corporate venture companies, Nelnet plays at the earlier angel phase, typically with check sizes of $100,000 to $250,000. We’re usually one of the first dollars into a company when they’re first getting off the ground. But because we have access to capital, we can also make larger investments down the line, providing another advantage over other traditional corporate ventures or limited partnerships out there. We have unlimited timelines and don’t have the same sort of constraints on continuing to go with our winners.”
Ardinger says Nelnet has been able to take advantage of this capability, noting that the organization originally invested in Nebraska startup Hudl in 2007. “Hudl is an example of where Nelnet was able to continue to put money in where a limited partner could not have done what we did. We have flexibility to participate in a variety of deals that might fit our strategic investment thesis.”
Why We Invest—and Why We Succeed
In several ways, Nelnet’s reasons for investing are like those of other corporate investors.
- Return on investment
- Market exploration
- Strategic partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions
- Relationship-building
However, Nelnet’s investment strategy also ties heavily to one of the organization’s five core values: giving back to the communities in which we live and work.
As Norris points out, “We don’t look at our investments as just investments for the financial benefits, we look at them as investing in the community.” With Nelnet headquartered in Lincoln, Neb., Nelnet Ventures has invested in multiple local startups.
The more we invest in the startup and technology sectors that are happening in our backyard, the rising tide lifts all boats—and we think that’s going to be more powerful for the community and then likewise for Nelnet.
Nelnet Director of Innovation
This focus on investing in the community is unique within even the region, with very few corporates taking local development into account in investment decisions, adds Ardinger. Nelnet’s emphasis on core values, especially giving back to its communities, is something leadership takes seriously.
Considering the team’s continuing success, Ardinger notes, “The reason we’re successful is we have an executive team that understands the world of early-stage investing and is passionate about it, allowing us to be around since 2006.”
The success and longevity of the team is also helped by Nelnet’s commitment to innovation.
Venture and Innovation Associate
A New Investment Partnership Model Within Edtech
As Nelnet has learned more about corporate venture capital, the team has aimed to not only expand its thesis but also its efforts across the company. According to Norris, “We’ve begun to collaborate with leaders within Nelnet Business Services (NBS) to explore emerging technology in education.”
Norris adds, “This is an interesting model we’ve always wanted to try. Collaborating with the FACTS team has provided the opportunity to identify early stage companies in the EdTech space making it possible to do investments, engage in partnerships and even possible acquisitions.”
The partnership model evolved organically. As Kist notes, “The NBS edtech FACTS team is looking for ways to expand into new markets within the K-12 space, and that’s an area we’ve invested in before. So it just made sense to team up and look at the emerging trends in the market together.”
The partnership offers opportunities for all internal parties to gain important knowledge, and for Nelnet to find new companies to invest in. Nelnet Ventures brings value to Nelnet and its brands in the marketplaces we serve because of the unique opportunities we can offer.
From an external perspective, one of the advantages that brings is when we’re looking at opportunities in the marketplace, we can provide a variety of different ways to engage with companies out there. So whether it’s investing in them from a purely capital ROI perspective, whether it’s partnering with them, whether it’s an acquisition opportunity down the line, there’s a lot of different things we can bring to the table in this marketplace that, if we didn’t have a corporate venture arm, wouldn’t be possible.
Nelnet Director of Innovation
The Evolution of Strategic Investing at Nelnet
The longevity and success of corporate investment at Nelnet stems from organizational commitment that has deep roots. Nelnet participated in the organizational meeting of the Nebraska Angels in 2006 and has been active as a member since.
What started as a team of one in 2006 has grown into a team of four. Norris started with Nelnet prior to 1994, Ardinger has been at Nelnet since 2018, and Kist joined the organization in 2020. The team also includes Gretchen Holland, an intern, who has been with Nelnet since 2023.
Nelnet’s first investment was a relatively small one in Hudl, a startup that provides online video analysis and coaching tools software for professional, college, high school, club, and youth teams and athletes. Now what Forbes terms a global sports video data giant, Hudl shares an office with Nelnet in Lincoln’s Haymarket District where the two organizations have helped each other grow. Hudl’s CEO is on Nelnet’s Board of Directors, and Nelnet’s Executive Chairman of the Board is on Hudl’s board.
Nelnet’s 2017 investment in CompanyCam was another local, high-growth venture and one of the startup’s first outside investors. CompanyCam helps contractors build trust with their crews and customers through photo documentation, making it easy to keep everyone on the same page. Now with an office presence in Lincoln’s Haymarket District, CompanyCam has grown to one of the largest construction tech companies in the Midwest, with over 47 million projects documented and 132,000 professional tradesmen using the technology.
Nelnet’s collaboration with Maptician has evolved significantly over the past few years. In 2020, Nelnet adopted Maptician’s intelligent space and occupancy management technology to facilitate social distancing as employees returned to the office. Recognizing the platform’s value, Nelnet led a $1.7 million seed funding round for Maptician in May 2021, with participation from Invest Nebraska and the Nebraska Angels. This investment enabled Maptician to enhance its product offerings and expand its team in both Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Atlanta metro area. By 2023, Nelnet provided additional funding to support Maptician’s growth. The two companies share office space in Lincoln’s Haymarket district, fostering a collaborative environment that benefits both organizations.
Several Key Investments Located Near Nelnet Offices
Nelnet’s commitment to investing in the communities where it lives and works is apparent with these and other key investments. The team has had a handful of successful exits. As Kist notes, “In venture, an investment can take seven to 10 years before we reach an exit. It’s definitely a long-term waiting game for us, and we have a handful of companies that are early in that process now.”
Nebraska-Based Investments
While the evolution of Nelnet’s investment strategy spans is interesting, it spans only the timeframe since 2006. It’s insightful to explore Nelnet’s acquisition of new technologies and diversification strategy over the past 40-plus years.
Corporate Innovation
Nelnet’s corporate venture capital team has applied learning to help spark corporate innovation from a business perspective, but also from a cultural aspect.
As Ardinger points out, “We’ve learned a lot from investing and being involved at that early stage of idea creation. Not just from a standpoint of ‘Let’s invest in early stage companies and get a return,’ but we’ve learned what it takes to start things from scratch. Then we can take those learnings and apply those to things we’re building internally within Nelnet across the divisions.”
Kist notes what she’s seen the team learn, apply, and share internally at Nelnet: “Investing in startups and building relationships with them has allowed us to follow along with their startup journey. We’ve been able to see how they innovate, iterate, and pivot.”
We’ve been able to experience how [startups] do customer discovery and build disruptive technology in their markets. We learn how they evaluate the competition and move fast. We learn from them that failure is okay and how to do it quickly and move on.
Nelnet Ventures Managing Director
Sharing the knowledge this team has gained has helped contribute to Nelnet’s already rich culture of innovation as the team has explored new internal partnerships. As Norris points out, “Our new model creates a lot of cross-department collaboration as we receive valuable market information and find new ideas for investing. All of this thought process goes into how we think about corporate innovation and internal innovation activities.”
Nelnet Ventures works closely with executive leadership to help drive an internal culture of innovation. Nelnet’s leadership places great emphasis on helping associates understand the critical value of learning how to ideate, explore, and be creative—all within an organization that also relies on execution for business success.
It’s clear that what Nelnet Ventures contributes to Nelnet is of far greater value than just financial. The team is a vital part of supporting communities where associates live and work and helping to strengthen the culture of exploration and innovation.
Reach Out
If you’re an early-stage company or an investor in edtech, fintech, climate and energy, or agriculture, we may be interested in collaborating with you. Contact us to learn more.
