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Malvika Bhagwat

Operating Partner, Head of Outcomes at Owl Ventures

San Francisco, California

Overview 

Malvika Bhagwat is currently the Operating Partner and Head of Outcomes at Owl Ventures, overseeing portfolio services with a focus on education and impact. With a Master of Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education, she has held key roles at organizations like Leanlab Education and Newsela, showcasing expertise in educational research, curriculum design, and efficacy assessment.

Work Experience 

  • Partner and Head of Outcomes

    2021 - Current

    In my role as Partner and Head of Outcomes at Owl Ventures, I spearheaded the creation of the Education Outcomes Report, a widely adopted industry benchmark. I directed portfolio initiatives impacting 634 million users, significantly advancing educational equity and measurable learning outcomes. Additionally, I created a proprietary DEI database adopted industry-wide for benchmarking EdTech companies on race, gender, and employee well-being metrics.

  • Director, Outcomes and Efficacy (Portfolio Services)

    2019 - 2021

    As Owl's first platform hire, I lead all portfolio services for the firm with a primary focus on Outcomes and Efficacy.

  • Board Observer

    2024

Amira Learning offers an intelligent reading assistant that listens, assesses, and tutors.

Raised $40,341,114.00 from Vertical Venture Partners, Owl Ventures, Rethink Education and Authentic Ventures.

  • Board Observer

    2024

  • EdTech Advisor and Speaker

    2019

    Industry Council member: EdTech Evidence Exchange (now a part of InnovateEDU) Member: AERDF Strategy Council Member: HP Futures Leaders Council Judge: NSF Vital Prize Advisor: Google’s Education Advisory Council Mentor: StartED Judge: ASU GSV Cup Member: NVCA AI Working Group Advisor: IES’s Council for Scaling Innovations I've been an invited speaker at several different conferences including Bloomberg for their panel on Gen AI, SOCAP for a discussion on DEI efforts, VC Platform summit, NYC Edtech Week, Credit Suisse’s Global Women’s Financial Forum, ISTE, NVCA Capitol Podcast, and World Economic Forum's different small group convenings, amongst others.

  • Board Member

    2023

    Leanlab Education is a nonprofit organization that focuses on innovating and improving the education system through collaboration and research. They work closely with educators, entrepreneurs, and researchers to develop and implement new educational technologies and practices that enhance student learning and outcomes.

LEANLAB Education seeks to bring innovative solutions to close the achievement gap in K12 schools.

  • Member

    2023

Chief is a private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders.

Raised $140,000,000.00 from BoxGroup, General Catalyst, Notable Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Inspired Capital Partners, Flybridge and CapitalG.

  • Manager, EdTech Portfolio Services - Impact

    2018 - 2019

    Create a community of research and practice for portfolio companies to engage with each other on an ongoing basis. Engage directly with portfolio companies to understand their efficacy and impact goals, help define goals as needed, and develop ways to measure them. Build programs and design convenings that help portfolio companies engage more effectively with education thought leaders, policymakers, and education leaders.

Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.

  • Senior Researcher, Learning & Efficacy

    2018 - 2018

  • Research Manager

    2017 - 2018

    1. Single-handedly leading the operations (budget, grants, legal contracts) and implementation for eight on-going research studies with leading organizations like Empirical Education and Wested 2. Analyzing product usage data to develop recommendations for classroom implementation and improved student reading outcomes. 3. Managing relationships with external research partners and schools partnering with Newsela to further research into literacy. 4. Collaborating with the product team to incorporate research best practices into the product roadmap and building features (power words, quizzes, article reactions) that are aligned with the latest pedagogical research.

  • Assessment Manager

    2015 - 2016

    I oversee Newsela's assessment department that produces leveled common-core aligned assessments and non-fiction articles that are used in 75% classrooms across United States to improve student reading. My responsibilities include developing the overall assessment strategy for the company, creating new assessment offerings to drive learning goals, vetting companies for potential partnerships and acquisitions and leading assessment alignment. 1. Onboarded and managed Newsela’s assessment team of four and oversaw the freelance contributor pool of 60+ writers and reviewers 2. Built scalable assessment processes to produce 800+ common-core aligned quiz items per week in two languages for 10 million+ students. 3. Collaborated with product, design and engineering teams to create and launch research-based assessment and learning tools. Selected examples: recommended annotations, feedback panels and other contributor facing productivity tools.

  • Assessment Specialist

    2014 - 2015

    1. Scaled assessment production to increase content output by 80% and reduce production cost by 60% 2. Oversaw the design and review of 300+ common-core aligned quiz items every week 3. Built and scaled our network of contributors from 0 to 50+ in five months 4. Analyzed quiz results to help draw insights into how Newsela helps student’s reading progress.

Newsela is an Ed-tech startup that takes content from trusted providers and turns it into learning materials.

Raised $172,156,174.00 from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Owl Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Kleiner Perkins, Waycross Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Reach Capital and TCV.

  • Reading Curriculum Designer

    2014 - 2014

    Developed chapter-by-chapter guided tutoring curriculum for fiction and non-fiction books as part of the ExpandED after-school programming run in 20 middle schools in New York City

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