Louisville: Chrysalis Ventures, a source of equity capital for young growth companies in the Midwest and South, has announced that it has led an $8.25 million series B investment in Maryland-based Regent Education, a provider of financial aid management solutions to schools in the post-secondary education market. Edison Venture Fund, a growth capital investor in the Mid-Atlantic region and lead series A investor, also participated in this financing.

Regent is the only provider of financial aid management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for higher education institutions. The company's web-based, easy-to-use solutions leverage technology and automation to improve the operational efficiencies of the financial aid office, a mission critical aspect of higher education that is faced with regulatory compliance concerns, growth in demand for student loans, and increasing competition for students.

Regent enables higher education institutions to manage their complete business process for financial aid management, administration, disbursement, packaging, compliance, tracking, communications, verification, imaging, and all student self-service activities. Its products allow the delivery of audit reporting and the latest state and federal regulations and updates in real time. In addition, through automation of the financial aid process, Regent allows schools to more quickly and efficiently turnaround financial aid decisions to aid enrollment. Regent's solutions, developed on open standards architecture, interoperate with the leading student information and education Enterprise Resource Planning ('ERP') systems.

"We are partnering with Chrysalis Ventures and Edison Venture Fund for this important round of growth financing," said Mike Ratti, CEO of Regent Education. "In addition to capital, they bring valuable strategic insight and technology experience. This capital infusion will help us expand our market penetration, as well as augment our product development efforts."

According to Bob Saunders, managing director of Chrysalis Ventures, "Within Chrysalis' technology portfolio, technology enabled education and training is an area of core focus. Regent's financial aid management software not only improves operational efficiency and compliance but also offers a best-in-class product for a mission critical aspect of higher education, making the company a great fit for our growing portfolio of education-related investments."