Aeries Software
“Can a 30-year-old California K-12 SIS defend its incumbency by broadening into a full platform (payments, gradebook, expanded learning, communications) via partnerships rather than building fintech itself?”
Founded1995
HQOrange, California, United States
FoundersJerry D. Lloyd
Latest roundPE Growth (2025)
IndustryVertical SaaS / Education (K-12 SIS)
The story
Aeries has spent 30 years as the dominant K-12 SIS in California (750+ districts). Payments came late as a bolt-on: rather than build a merchant-of-record stack, Aeries partnered with Destiny Fundraising Manager, which owns the payment gateway and PayPal relationship — Aeries just records fees, schedules, and passes data. The 2025 PE growth investment appears to be funding a broader platform expansion (JumpRope, ActivityHero, ParentSquare-powered communications) rather than a fintech pivot.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
1995
Founded by Jerry D. Lloyd to build a K-12 Student Information System for California school districts.· launch
2020
Launched Aeries Payments — integrated fee/tuition/fundraising billing via Destiny Fundraising Manager integration.· payments
2025
Announced growth investment (PE Growth round).· funding
2025
Aeries Communications powered by ParentSquare launched.· product
2026
Launched JumpRope (standards-based gradebook) and ActivityHero (expanded learning) as additional product offerings.· product
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Aeries Software’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Destiny Fundraising ManagerPayPal
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
5 more providers across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.