According to a report in EdWeek, ETS has launched “investment arm devoted to supporting growth-stage companies in education” called ETS Strategic Capital. The article reports that through this arm ETS plans to make equity investments ranging from $1 million to $20 million dollars, and M&A deals ranging from $20 million to $200 million.
I guess this answers the question of what ETS did with the money they got from selling Prometric to a Hong Kong based private equity fund in 2018. That sale, the timing of which turned out to be quite fortuitous, added one billion dollars to ETS’s bottom line.
The article mentions a few startups ETS has already invested in. Some of them look promising. Being flush with cash at a time like this puts ETS in a strong position, and I am sure their investments will pay off in the long run. I fear, though, that the organization may be moving further from its core mandate of conducting valuable research and developing accurate assessment methods.
Interestingly, ETS recently started looking for a new Chief Operating Officer. I don’t know if that is connected to this development.