Risepoint, the global education technology company that supports online degree programs at more than 100 not-for-profit universities and colleges, has won four 2026 Comparably Best Places to Work Awards: Best Career Growth, Best Leadership Teams, Best Sales Teams, and Best Product & Design Teams.
Comparably, an employee review platform owned by ZoomInfo, selects its winners entirely from anonymous employee feedback. Ratings are collected over a 12-month period from employees at tens of thousands of organizations, and the award categories evaluate leadership, career growth, compensation, work environment, and team effectiveness.
There is no application to file and no judging panel to lobby. A company wins because enough of its own people, rating it anonymously, said it deserved to.
The Ratings
The company’s public profile on Comparably offers a view of the sample behind the awards. Risepoint holds a culture rating of 4.6 out of 5, based on ratings submitted by over 590 employee participants, putting it in the top 10% of comparable companies ranked on the platform.
Comparably scores companies in nearly 20 workplace categories, with ratings segmented by gender, ethnicity, age, experience, location, and education. Its breadth separates its Best Places to Work series from awards built on a single engagement survey, and anonymous ratings accumulate over the full year.
Career Growth and Leadership
Two of the four awards answer some of the most consistent questions employees ask about any employer: can I advance here, and do I trust the people running the place? Best Career Growth goes to organizations where employees report strong opportunities for advancement, learning, and professional development. Best Leadership Teams measures employee confidence in executive leadership, strategic direction, and the future of the organization.
“These awards are especially meaningful because they come directly from employee feedback,” said Fernando Bleichmar, Risepoint CEO, in a statement on the awards. “Our people are at the center of everything we do. We are committed to fostering a culture where employees feel supported in their growth, empowered to make an impact, and connected to a shared mission. This recognition reflects the dedication of our team and the strength of the culture we continue to build together.”
The other two honors recognize specific functions. Best Sales Teams and Best Product & Design Teams capture how employees inside those departments rate their own units. For a company in this line of work, strength on both sides counts. Sales teams build and sustain the university relationships at the core of the business, and product and design teams shape the tools that students and faculty use every day.
Culture Without a Common Office
Risepoint operates remote-first, with employees across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Distributed companies often find culture difficult to sustain once the shared office disappears, and employee-rated awards are one of the few external checks on whether a remote culture actually works.
Risepoint has continued to invest in career development, leadership growth, collaboration, and employee well-being programs built for a workforce spread across time zones.
The company’s benefits point in the same direction: a remote-first work environment, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement for employees who enroll in Risepoint-supported programs, and a company-wide closure during the last week of December.
The 2026 awards extend a multi-year pattern. Comparably has previously recognized Risepoint with awards for Best CEO, Best Company Culture, and Best Company Work-Life Balance, among others.
The Company Behind the Culture
Risepoint works with more than 100 universities and colleges, most of them regional institutions, helping them launch and grow online degree programs in fields with steady employment demand: nursing, teaching, business, and public service. The company describes its mission as expanding access to affordable, workforce-relevant education, with programs aimed largely at working adults fitting coursework around full-time jobs. Roughly 95% of students in Risepoint-supported programs fall into that category.
The company reports more than 25,000 courses launched and 22,000 faculty supported, with partner institutions across 40 states and five countries. Independent research by Ipsos, conducted as the annual Risepoint student outcomes study, puts the average payback period for a Risepoint-supported degree at roughly 18 months.
