Two entities since day one
Since 2012–2013 there have always been two Minervas. The nonprofit university (originally Minerva Schools at KGI, independently accredited by WSCUC in 2021) enrolls the students and grants the degrees. The for-profit Minerva Project built and owns the Forum platform, the curriculum designs, the assessment framework — and the name itself.
The nonprofit pays the for-profit for technology and services. That much is public structure, described since the earliest press coverage. What has never been disclosed in clean line-item detail: the full schedule of platform, curriculum-license, and brand fees, or what happens to a university's curriculum if it stops paying its vendor.
Follow the money, follow the board seats
The for-profit has raised $128M+ in venture capital across five SEC-documented offerings: Benchmark's $25M seed (2012), a ~$45M Series B first close with TAL Education (2014), a $57M Series C led by ByteDance (2019), and a $3M top-up (2022). Each round put investor directors on the company board — TAL's founder, then its CFO, then ByteDance's founder. By 2022, every Chinese director was gone.
The nonprofit, meanwhile, survives on philanthropy — 38–70% of revenue every year — overseen by an unpaid board of grandees. The founder sat on both boards for a decade. In the FY2025 filing, his name appears on neither the university's board nor, for the first time, anywhere in its governance. He still runs the company. He no longer governs the school.
Why the structure matters to you
If you enroll or donate, know which Minerva you're dealing with. Tuition and gifts flow into the nonprofit; the brand value they create accrues to the for-profit; the fees connecting the two are undisclosed. That is not an accusation — it is the documented structure. See the boards, by name, then decide what it means.