PHILADELPHIA, September 14, 2026—Metaschool AI captured the $40,000 Michael & Lori Milken Family Foundation Grand Prize at the 17th annual Milken–Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) today at Penn’s Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
The venture is an accredited online high school keeping Ghanaian students learning year-round through mobile-first instruction during disruptions caused by the country's double-track education system.
Other winners include Unified Track (cofounded by Dustin Bainbridge, a student in Penn GSE's Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership), which won the $25,000 Flexion Prize, and Literacy Tree, which received the $10,000 Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld Prize. Brikap captured the $5,000 EdSales Revenue Machine Audience Choice Prize.
This year marked the first time the Competition Finals have been held at the University of Pennsylvania since the COVID-19 pandemic and the first year the competition was presented in conjunction with Penn GSE’s Catalyst Innovation Summit. The two events brought together entrepreneurs, investors, educators, researchers, and education leaders for a day focused on advancing innovation and impact across the education sector.
Before advancing to the Finals, EBPC semifinalists participated in Catapult, Catalyst @ Penn GSE’s virtual accelerator, where they strengthened their ventures through self-paced learning, mentorship, and feedback from industry experts.
The seven finalists pitched their ventures to a live judging panel as well as an audience of entrepreneurs, investors, and practitioners. Widely regarded as the most prestigious and well-funded competition of its kind, the EBPC has awarded more than $2.5 million in cash and prizes since its founding. Past winners and finalists have gone on to raise more than $250 million in follow-on funding while expanding their reach and impact across education.
“The EBPC recognizes entrepreneurs who are not only identifying important challenges in education but also building thoughtful, scalable, and measurable solutions to address them,” said John Gamba, Penn GSE Entrepreneur-in-Residence, who directs the competition. “This year’s winners demonstrated the vision, resilience, and commitment required to convert an idea into a sustainable venture with the potential to impact a broad scale of diverse global learners. We are thrilled to celebrate their ingenuity and grit.”
The 2026 EBPC prize winners are as follows:
- Metaschool AI captured the $40,000 Michael & Lori Milken Family Foundation Grand Prize.
- Unified Track won the $25,000 Flexion Prize.
- Literacy Tree earned the $10,000 Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld Prize.
- Brikap collected the $5,000 Audience Choice Prize presented by The EdSales Revenue Machine.
“For 17 years, the Milken–Penn GSE EBPC has brought fresh thinking to the challenges and opportunities facing education. The competition reflects an enduring commitment to asking what is possible, supporting new approaches, and creating opportunities for ideas to move from vision to impact. That commitment remains as important as ever,” said Michael Golden, Vice Dean of Innovative Programs and Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
The EBPC is made possible through the generous support of the Michael and Lori Milken Family Foundation, Flexion, Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld, and The EdSales Revenue Machine.
The Milken family, several of whom are Penn graduates, embody the Ben Franklin spirit. Through successful educational entrepreneurship—from pre-K services through college education for working adults—as well as investments in educational enterprises, they have demonstrated a commitment to the leaders of tomorrow. In their four decades of philanthropic activities, the Milken family has made innovation in education—as exemplified by the Milken Educator Awards and National Institute for Excellence in Teaching—a cornerstone of their work.
Penn GSE is one of the world’s leading schools in education research and practitioner preparation. Penn GSE partners with schools, universities, and communities to expand educational access—especially for those underserved by society—and, through rigorous research and innovative programs, develops new knowledge and transformational teachers and leaders in pursuit of educational opportunity. Follow Penn GSE on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Find more on educationcompetition.org or follow the conversation on LinkedIn: @CatalystPennGSE and #MilkenPennGSE.
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