Back-to-School Spending and Financial Education: Recapping Recent Financial News Trends

A look at the finance industry news from PR Newswire in July and August that you might have missed.

By Rocky Parker | Published Sept. 9, 2024

With more than 6,500 finance press releases sent via PR Newswire in July and August, we can understand if you had trouble keeping up. Our team has been watching the headlines and, in this post, we’ll recap a few of the large trends as well as the most-read finance press releases of the last two months.

As a new school season ramped up, brands chimed in with ways to save, school cost trends and more. We also spotted an increase in the number of releases tied to financial education and kept an eye on venture capital news as startup investments continued their rebound from a tough 2023.

Let’s dive in!

Popular Finance Releases

In July and August, these finance press releases generated some of the highest numbers of views in the industry and it’s not hard to see why.

• Student Loan Forgiveness: MOHELA Sets Record for Processing Highest Amount of Student Loan Forgiveness in Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program History
• Acquisition: Instructure to be Acquired by KKR for $4.8 Billion
• Recordkeeping: TIAA announces strategic partnership with Accenture to accelerate transformation of its retirement recordkeeping
• Acquisition: Blue Owl Capital Significantly Expands Alternative Credit and Asset-Based Finance Capabilities with Acquisition of Atalaya Capital Management's Business
• Banking Investment: KeyCorp Receives Strategic Minority Investment from Scotiabank

Finance News Trends

Let’s dive in to the big finance news trends of July and August and take a look at some of the related releases.

Back-to-School Meets Finance

As parents, teachers and students prepared for another school year to begin, companies across the education, finance and consumer industries were sharing the latest news surrounding school costs.

The announcements came when 2.4 million student loan borrowers reported having a six-figure debt, up from 1.8 million in 2017. And back-to-school spending is only increasing. The National Retail Federation reports that households expect to spend over $700 each on K-12 expenses and nearly $1,400 on college expenses.            

Whether it was deals on back-to-school supplies, surveys on the stress of education costs, student loan news or scholarship announcements, we spotted a little bit of everything on the wire in July and August.

Catch up with these releases:

• GradGuard reminded students and families of the importance of renters insurance since colleges or universities are unlikely to replace stolen or damaged personal property.
• EVERFI® from Blackbaud® released new and updated K-12 digital resources covering important topics like developing smart money habits, the potential benefits of working with a financial advisor, preparing for taxes and more.
• To help parents save on back-to-school shopping, Shipt partnered with pro dancer and on-air personality Allison Holker to share tips and deals to relieve some of the stress of the season.
• New research from Junior Achievement found that 68% of teens would "likely" take a class on financial literacy if offered to them, yet only 31% say they have access to these kinds of courses in school. 

Financial Education

With Financial Awareness Day taking place on August 14, our team saw a spike in financial literacy and education press releases sent during the past two months.

Brands took to the wire to share the latest products and tips to help consumers manage their budgets, save more, plan for retirement, make smart investments and more.

There were plenty of unique financial education press releases sent via PR Newswire, including these ones:

• TeamUp announced a partnership with The Collective Association to elevate financial education for college athletes with resources in personal finance management, credit building and financial literacy.
• Ally Financial launched a free financial wellness program based on money psychology to “help people uncover how their money mindset impacts their spending, saving and investing decisions.”
• BrightPlan’s new Financial Wellness Coach is a generative AI-powered tool that provides immediate guidance directly to a company’s employees by incorporating each person's unique financial situation and company benefits. 
• As part of its goal to reach one million people through financial resources by 2030, Principal^® Foundation announced its collaboration with We Are Teachers to develop a lesson plan to help encourage conversations about money. 
• A new LendingClub survey revealed a “surprising lack of consumer awareness regarding the true cost of their credit card debt in today's high interest rate environment.”

Venture Capital News

After a lackluster year of venture funding in 2023 (some even called it a bloodbath), 2024 has shown more promise as the demand for AI-powered solutions grows. In July, venture capital funding reached over $23 billion, according to Crunchbase, up more than 20% year over year.

Startups in the climate and health and biotech verticals have been doing particularly well when it comes to securing funding. 

Despite the strong turnaround, investors worry that a possible recession could hamper the VC rebound. We’ll be keeping an eye on this trend, but in the meantime, catch up with some of the most-read VC press releases of July and August:

• Biotech company Third Arc Bio Inc. announced a $165 million oversubscribed Series A financing that will advance the company through clinical studies to address significant unmet needs in oncology and autoimmunity.
• Chess legend Magnus Carlsen and investor Jan Henric Buettner launched Freestyle Chess with €10 million in funding from Left Lane Capital. The company will “establish a leading tournament series that aims to revolutionize the world of chess.”
• Element Biosciences announced over $277 million in Series D funding to support its growing global customer base with disruptive DNA sequencing and multi-omics technologies. The oversubscribed round brings Element's cumulative raise to over $680 million.
• Applied Carbon, a technology company that designs machines that convert in-field agricultural crop waste into biochar, raised a $21.5 million Series A. The biochar produced by the machines is passed back to the field to increase soil health and sequester carbon.
• General Atlantic led a $50 million equity financing round for Athletic Brewing. Athletic will use the funding to purchase a third U.S. brewing facility and fuel the ongoing retail expansion of its non-alcoholic beer.

Looking Ahead

The team will be watching for holiday spending trends and news as the big consumer spending months approach. September 18 also marks International Equal Pay Day, so we might see a spike in related press releases crossing the wire just before the next earnings period ramps up in October.

Stay tuned for our next finance news recap!

About the Author

Rocky Parker is the Manager of Audience and Journalist Engagement at Cision PR Newswire. She's been with the company since 2010 and has worked with journalists and bloggers as well as PR and comms professionals. Outside of work, she can be found trying a new recipe, binging a new show, or cuddling with her pitbull, Hudson.