Introducing AlleyCorp Impact Eng(ine)

We're proud to announce a new effort between AlleyCorp Impact and Engineering.

On behalf of AlleyCorp and AlleyCorp Nord, I’m proud to introduce Impact Eng(ine): a joint effort between our Impact vertical and Engineering teams. Impact Eng(ine) is a new AlleyCorp program partnering with mission-driven, tech-enabled nonprofits to provide dedicated engineering expertise to build their products or services completely free of charge.

Technology is a consistent problem for nonprofit organizations, who often lack the capital to invest in new technology infrastructure or attract the top-tier engineering talent needed to build it. As a result, nonprofits lag behind in tech – which impedes their ability to operate efficiently and scale the reach of their programs. 

At AlleyCorp, we always look to add value beyond the checks we write. That is why we founded AlleyCorp Nord and Sur, our in-house engineering companies based out of Montreal and Bogota respectively, that help our incubations and portfolio build their products or services. As we surveyed the needs of nonprofits, it became clear to us that offering capital to enable new technology builds alongside best-in-class talent would make an outsized impact versus capital alone.  

We are incredibly excited to have launched Impact Eng(ine) by partnering with Podsie, a startup within Teaching Lab. Podsie is a personalized and automated learning tool built by teachers that integrates proven research on how to improve student learning using personalized review, spacing and interleaving, and repetition. Our 6 month engagement with Podsie brings AlleyCorp Nord’s combined product design, software development, natural language processing, and generative AI expertise to help build Podsie’s math content.  This build is consistent with the education goals we set out to pursue within our Impact vertical. 

The Math Suite launched in pilot classrooms this month and is expected to reach 30,000 students by April. Our partners will be measuring outcomes, and we expect to attain a >10% improvement in learning based on a third party validated study.  As part of the learnings from this engagement, Podsie’s founder Joshua Ling and AlleyCorp Nord’s Becks Simpson and Adel Boulaouad have submitted a scientific paper to the Generative AI in Education (GAIED) workshop at NeurIPS, one of the top five academic conferences focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.  

For future partnerships, we’re looking for tech-enabled nonprofits that have a clear strategic plan that prioritizes a technical build as a way to amplify their impact.  We look for potential partners that have some engineering talent already that can co-develop with our team and absorb the ongoing maintenance of the work following the conclusion of the project.  If you think a particular nonprofit could be a great fit for Impact Eng(ine), please feel free to reach out to us!