[February 18, 2013]

Kaplan Announces EdTech Startup Accelerator Program to Empower Innovative Education Companies

Kaplan, Inc., the global education services company and largest subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (News - Alert) (NYSE: WPO), announced today the launch of the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, powered by TechStars, an intensive three-month mentoring and business development program for 10 startup companies, in collaboration with TechStars, a nationally recognized startup accelerator.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will select startups using technology to create products and services across the broad spectrum of education including K-12, higher education, professional education, lifelong learning, and other areas. TechStars will invest $20,000 in each company accepted into the program.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator is the first corporate sponsored accelerator focused exclusively on the education sector, using TechStars' mentor-driven, deep immersion model. TechStars has completed 15 accelerator programs and its selected companies have attracted more than $285 million in funding in the past six years.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will host the startups, to be chosen by application, at its offices in New York City's West Village neighborhood from June to September 2013. They will be mentored by industry leaders, such as Kaplan, Inc. Chairman and CEO Andy Rosen, TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen, Washington Post Company Chairman and CEO Don Graham, noted venture capitalist and Foundry Group Managing Director Brad Feld, and many notable founders of ed-tech companies, including Jose Ferreira of Knewton and Eren Bali of Udemy.

Additionally, Kaplan will provide the startups with office space and facilities, and other resources as they work to build their companies and products. This support includes access to Kaplan's proprietary "Kaplan Way for Leaning" program, which harnesses the latest learnings from the fields of science, instructional design, and technology to support the development of highly effective, evidence-based learning products. Kaplan also has tremendous reach in education with more than one million students enrolled annually, taught by 10,000-plus instructors globally, relationships with 300-plus U.S. school districts, more than 20 university partners worldwide, and thousands of corporate customers.

The program will culminate in Demo Day, when the startups' founders will present for an elite group of angel and venture investors and education industry influencers, with the goal of securing funding to grow their companies.

"We're thrilled about partnering with TechStars to launch the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator," said Andy Rosen, Kaplan, Inc. chairman and CEO. "Kaplan's mission is to provide students around the world with the best, most efficient means to achieving their educational goals. Ongoing cultivation of new innovations from all across the sector-in ways like this accelerator program-is embedded in our company's history."

From its start, Kaplan has pioneered notable education innovations. It has, for example, launched the first wholly online law school in the U.S.; built its online university into one of the country's largest higher education institutions; and, more recently, created mobile delivery systems for its test prep and professional education customers, a new prior learning assessment service for adult learners, and an innovative, large-scale online instructional platform, KAPx. Kaplan will be making available as mentors several of those Kaplan professionals who have driven many of these innovations.

The application deadline is April 14, 2013. Selected companies will be contacted in late April, and the program will begin in June. Further details and the application for the program are available at KaplanEdTechAccelerator.com.

About Kaplan

Kaplan, Inc. is a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools, and businesses. Kaplan serves students of all ages through a wide array of offerings including higher education, test preparation, professional training, and programs for kids in grades K through 12. Kaplan also operates an active venture capital fund, Kaplan Ventures, which invests in and supports early-stage education companies. Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) and its largest division. For more information, please visit www.kaplan.com.

About TechStars

TechStars was founded in 2006 and is backed by over 75 different venture capital firms. Consistently rated the #1 startup accelerator in the world, TechStars executes an intensive 90-day, mentorship-driven program for entrepreneurs. For each program, ten companies are selected from a large pool of applicants. The selection rates for a TechStars program are lower than an Ivy League school at 1%. TechStars offers programs in six locations: Boulder, Boston, New York, Seattle, Chicago, and the Cloud program in San Antonio. In addition, TechStars offers the same successful model to corporations such as Nike, Microsoft (News - Alert) and Kaplan, Inc. as "powered by TechStars" programs.

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