Crimson Education

Crimson Education is a for-profit college-prep company headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.

The business specializes in providing college-prep services focused toward students gaining admission at elite universities including Ivy-league institutions. It charges students between $2k - $20k for its tutoring services aimed at obtaining entry at top international universities.

USA Today and the NZ news website Stuff has accused the company of running 'ghost offices' and relying on untrained tutors.

As of 2024 the company is privately held, with a post-money valuation of around NZ $1B following a 2022 funding round.

The company is heavily branded around Jamie Beaton, one of its founders, who is notable in part for having obtained a remarkably large number of credentials from various elite international universities. NZ news website The Spinoff reported upon push-back Crimson received from Rhodes Scholars after Beaton attempted to recruit them to work for Crimson.

History
The business was founded in 2013 by New Zealander then-teenagers Jamie Beaton, Fangzhou Jiang, and Sharndre Kushor. The business was initially conceived as a college-prep consultancy. It grew substantially after an initial funding round of NZ$1.4m raised from Julian Robertson Chase Coleman, and Alex Robertson (all associated with Tiger Management); as well as from Japan tutoring billionaire Soichiro Fukutake.

In 2016 funding round implied a post-money valuation of NZ$75m, with Beaton the largest shareholder.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that, as of 2022, the business has 630 full-time staff and around 3000 tutors and mentors. In the same year, a post-money valuation of US$550 million was obtained after a capital raise.

Legal disputes
In 2017, Crimson Education was involved in a breach of contract litigation with a former employee. The matter was eventually subject to a confidential settlement. In 2018, the University of Auckland filed a suit against a Crimson Education subsidiary, alleging breach of copyright. The suit was eventually settled.

In January 2021 it was reported that a $10-million High Court lawsuit had been filed by a competitor of Crimson involving allegations of employee poaching. Beaton had also filed a civil assault claim against the owner of that competitor. In May 2022, media reported that the parties reached a confidential settlement.