Hyde Park EdTech Founder Raymond Atieno Turns Down Acquisition Offer to Stay Independent

Raymond Atieno, founder of Hyde Park-based online tutoring platform StudyBridge, confirmed this week that he turned down a nine-figure acquisition offer from a national education technology company, opting instead to continue growing the company independently.

Atieno started StudyBridge as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, building the platform to connect high school students with college student tutors for a fraction of the cost of traditional tutoring services. The company has grown to serve school districts across several states, with Chicago Public Schools and several suburban Cook County districts among its largest institutional customers.

"The offer was real money, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tempting for about a week," Atieno said. "But we're still growing fast on our own, and I wasn't convinced the acquiring company would keep the parts of this platform that actually make it work for students, which is the relationship between the tutor and the student, not just the technology."

StudyBridge currently employs 50 people at its Hyde Park headquarters and contracts with several thousand college student tutors nationwide. Atieno said the company will instead pursue a smaller funding round to support continued expansion into new school district partnerships, rather than taking the acquisition or a larger private equity investment that would have required faster growth targets.

Education technology industry analysts have noted a wave of consolidation among tutoring platforms over the past two years, making Atieno's decision to remain independent somewhat unusual. Atieno said StudyBridge generated approximately $29 million in revenue last year, up from roughly $18 million the year before.