Yardstick Research tear-sheet / higher education CRM cohort
Ivy & Ocelot (by Gravyty)
Identity
- Founded: [UNKNOWN - Gravyty parent company founding year not publicly surfaced; Ivy.ai and Ocelot were independent higher-ed chatbot companies that merged into the Gravyty portfolio in 2024-2025] [THIRD-PARTY - https://www.gravyty.com/]
- HQ: [UNKNOWN - no HQ location surfaced on public pages as of research date] [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/about/]
- Legal entity: [UNKNOWN - Gravyty, Inc. presumed; legal entity not publicly confirmed]
- Funding: [UNKNOWN - no public funding disclosure found; Gravyty operates as a private company; Ivy.ai and Ocelot were previously venture-backed as independent entities]
- Headcount: [UNKNOWN - not disclosed publicly; 2,750+ institutions served across all Gravyty products]
- Recent news (last 12 months):
- 2024-2025 - Ivy.ai and Ocelot, previously competing higher-ed chatbot platforms, were consolidated under the Gravyty brand as "Ivy & Ocelot," creating a combined virtual assistant product for higher education. The consolidation is documented on the gravyty.com product pages but no formal press release with date has been found in public sources. [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/]
- May 2026 - Gravyty blog focused on fundraising and alumni engagement products (Raise, Graduway), suggesting the company's marketing emphasis has shifted toward the advancement/fundraising side of its portfolio. Student-facing chatbot updates were not prominently covered in recent blog content. [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/blog/]
- Ongoing - Ivy & Ocelot product page states support for 106+ languages, SOC 2 / HIPAA / FERPA / GDPR / TX-RAMP / State-RAMP compliance, and AES-256 encryption. [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/technology/compliance-accessibility/]
- Ongoing - Institution count reported as 2,750+ across all Gravyty products (includes Graduway alumni platform, Raise fundraising, and Ivy & Ocelot chatbot); Ivy & Ocelot-specific institution count not separately disclosed. [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/]
- Archetype: AI-powered higher-ed chatbot platform, combining two previously independent chatbot brands (Ivy.ai and Ocelot) under a single Gravyty product umbrella. Primarily serves student-facing use cases (enrollment, financial aid, registration, admissions) via conversational AI across chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and social media. The parent company Gravyty also operates advancement/fundraising tools (Graduway, Raise, Advance), giving the combined entity a broader higher-ed engagement portfolio than a pure-play chatbot vendor.
Total score: 71 / 100
- Stage fit:
- Foundation (<40 readiness): no - No self-serve or freemium entry point; no public pricing.
- Pilot (40-59): yes - Single-channel chatbot (admissions Q&A, financial aid FAQ) deployments are achievable within a semester. The no-code flow builder reduces implementation dependency on IT for campaign-level configuration.
- Scale (60-79): yes - The 106-language support and multi-channel surface (chat + SMS + WhatsApp + voice + email) make this a viable scale-stage tool for institutions with high-volume, multilingual student populations.
- Optimization (80+): conditional - The unified analytics and AI-assisted conversation management are optimization-capable; however, the SIS/LMS integration depth (2.4/4) limits the platform's ability to serve as a primary advising intelligence layer at the Optimization stage.
- One-line verdict: The broadest-channel, most multilingual chatbot in the higher-ed CRM cohort - but the Gravyty portfolio consolidation introduced a brand and product clarity gap, and SIS/LMS integration depth is moderate compared to native-SIS competitors.
Headline numbers
| Metric | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier? | No | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/] |
| Pricing | Not disclosed; hard penalty applied | [UNKNOWN - https://www.gravyty.com/] |
| Total institutions served (all Gravyty products) | 2,750+ | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/] |
| Languages supported | 106+ | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/] |
| Compliance standards claimed | SOC 2, HIPAA, FERPA, GDPR, TX-RAMP, State-RAMP | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/technology/compliance-accessibility/] |
| Encryption standard | AES-256 in transit and at rest | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/technology/compliance-accessibility/] |
| Accessibility | WCAG 2.1 Level A & AA | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/technology/compliance-accessibility/] |
| Named SIS integrations | Ellucian Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/] |
| Named LMS integrations | Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace | [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/] |
Dimension scores
| Dimension | Score | Weight | Weighted | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI capability depth | 3.2/4 | 15 | 12.0 | [VENDOR-CLAIMED] Conversational AI trained specifically for higher education; multilingual support in 106+ languages; no-code flow builder; continuous learning from interaction history. AI-native score 75 in D1. Gaps: no published accuracy benchmarks for chatbot response quality; no disclosed LLM stack; the consolidation of Ivy.ai and Ocelot raises integration quality questions (two different AI architectures unified into one product is non-trivial); no peer-reviewed research on Ivy.ai or Ocelot intervention outcomes analogous to Mainstay's RCT record. [https://www.gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/] |
| Workflow integration depth (SIS/LMS) | 2.4/4 | 25 | 15.0 | [VENDOR-CLAIMED] Named SIS integrations: Ellucian Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar. Named LMS integrations: Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace. Named CRM integrations: Salesforce, Slate, Raiser's Edge NXT. Also: financial aid systems, Flywire, Touchnet. Integration breadth covers the major higher-ed SIS environments but depth is chatbot-context access (answering questions about student records, course availability) rather than bidirectional CRM workflow sync. Workday Student not named. 2.4/4 reflects solid breadth but limited workflow depth relative to native-SIS vendors. [https://www.gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/] |
| Vertical specialization | 4.0/4 | 15 | 15.0 | [VENDOR-CLAIMED] Higher education is the core market; Gravyty also serves nonprofits and K-12 but the Ivy & Ocelot product is explicitly higher-ed focused. 2,750+ institutions across the Gravyty portfolio; chatbot expertise in enrollment, financial aid, advising, housing, and registration is higher-ed-specific. [https://www.gravyty.com/] |
| Implementation + time-to-value | 3.2/4 | 10 | 8.0 | [VENDOR-CLAIMED] No-code flow builder enables rapid chatbot configuration without IT dependency for content updates. Multi-channel deployment (chat + SMS + WhatsApp) is faster than full CRM implementation. Single use case go-live (admissions Q&A or financial aid FAQ) achievable within weeks. Compared to SIS-ecosystem vendors, implementation footprint is light. [https://www.gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/] |
| Data + compliance posture (FERPA) | 3.2/4 | 15 | 12.0 | [VENDOR-CLAIMED] FERPA compliance claimed; SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, TX-RAMP, State-RAMP also claimed. AES-256 encryption, regional data residency options. Gaps: SOC 2 type (Type I vs. Type II) and audit date not publicly disclosed; FERPA compliance is vendor-claimed without a public attestation URL; ISO 27001 not mentioned; HITRUST not mentioned. The Ivy.ai + Ocelot consolidation under Gravyty may mean FERPA data processing agreements were written under different legal entities - institutions should confirm DPAs were updated under the Gravyty entity. [VENDOR-CLAIMED - https://www.gravyty.com/technology/compliance-accessibility/] |
| Pricing + scalability | 3.2/4 | 5 | 4.0 | [UNKNOWN] No pricing disclosed. Hard penalty (−10 points) applies per the Yardstick rubric. Multi-channel scale (chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email) is built-in rather than add-on, which is favorable for institutions expecting high conversation volume. Scalability for 106+ languages is a genuine differentiator for institutions serving international student populations. [https://www.gravyty.com/] |
| Vendor strength + named-customer evidence | 4.0/4 | 15 | 15.0 | [VENDOR-CLAIMED] 2,750+ institutions across the Gravyty portfolio; the combined Ivy.ai + Ocelot history spans a decade of higher-ed chatbot deployment; Ivy.ai specifically had a large named-institution customer base in US higher education before the Gravyty consolidation. The breadth of institutions across the portfolio is the strongest customer-count signal in the chatbot sub-category of this cohort. Specific Ivy & Ocelot-only institution count not separated from the portfolio total. [https://www.gravyty.com/] |
| Total | 100 | 81.0 − 10 (hard) = 71 |
Pricing detail
Ivy & Ocelot (Gravyty) does not publish pricing. No rate card, no pricing page, and no third-party confirmed pricing is available. This constitutes a hard pricing-transparency penalty (−10 points) per the Yardstick rubric.
Pricing is negotiated per institution. The multi-product Gravyty portfolio (Ivy & Ocelot, Graduway, Raise, Advance) creates bundling opportunities for institutions interested in combined student success and advancement engagement, but also makes standalone Ivy & Ocelot pricing harder to estimate. Institutions should clarify whether they are pricing the chatbot product only or a broader Gravyty suite.
Integrations
From the public product page at gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/:
SIS integrations: - Ellucian Banner - Ellucian Colleague - Oracle PeopleSoft - Jenzabar
LMS integrations: - Canvas (Instructure) - Blackboard (Anthology) - Moodle - D2L Brightspace
CRM integrations: - Salesforce - Slate (Technolutions) - Raiser's Edge NXT (Blackbaud)
Payment / financial systems: - Flywire - TouchNet
Integration approach: Integration is chatbot-context focused - the platform accesses SIS and LMS data to provide accurate answers to student questions (enrollment status, course availability, financial aid status, account balances). Integration depth is not a bidirectional workflow sync with advisor caseload management; it is a read-access layer for student self-service contexts. Workday Student is not named on the public integrations list.
Multi-channel surface: Chat (web), SMS, WhatsApp, email, social media, voice/telephony (call deflection and routing). The breadth of channels is the widest in this cohort and is a genuine differentiator for institutions serving diverse student communication preferences.
Editorial assessment
Ivy & Ocelot by Gravyty is the product of consolidating two previously independent higher-ed chatbot brands - Ivy.ai and Ocelot - into a unified platform under the Gravyty portfolio company. Both Ivy.ai and Ocelot had substantial institution customer bases and complementary technical approaches before consolidation; the combined product inherits that reach and is positioned as a single pane of glass for multi-channel student engagement. The 2,750+ institution claim across the Gravyty portfolio is the broadest customer-count in the chatbot category of this cohort, though it includes institutions using Gravyty's fundraising and alumni tools (Graduway, Raise) that may not be Ivy & Ocelot customers.
The channel breadth - chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, social media, voice - is the product's clearest differentiator. No other vendor in this cohort provides native WhatsApp integration, and the 106-language support is unmatched among cohort peers. For institutions with large international student populations or first-generation students who prefer mobile and messaging channels over web portals, this surface breadth is material.
The SIS/LMS integration dimension (2.4/4) reflects a real constraint: the integrations enable chatbot accuracy (the bot can answer questions about a student's specific enrollment, holds, or course availability because it has read access to SIS data), but they do not provide the bidirectional workflow sync that an advising CRM requires. An advisor using Ivy & Ocelot cannot manage a caseload, schedule appointments, file progress reports, or track intervention history with the same depth as Navigate360 or Ellucian Advising. The platform is a student self-service and engagement layer, not a primary advising management system.
The Gravyty consolidation raises one ongoing question that procurement teams should investigate: the combined entity now serves higher ed (Ivy & Ocelot, student success) and advancement/fundraising (Graduway, Raise, Advance) from the same platform. The recent blog coverage (May 2026) focused heavily on fundraising products. Institutions purchasing Ivy & Ocelot specifically for student engagement should confirm product roadmap priority for the student-success chatbot vs. the advancement side of the portfolio.
Best for
- Stage: Pilot and Scale. Foundation fit limited by no-self-serve entry. Optimization fit conditional on accepting chatbot-layer rather than full CRM.
- Company profile: Institutions serving diverse, multilingual student populations; community colleges and open-access universities with high advisor-to-student ratios where chatbot deflection has the most leverage; institutions already running a primary advising CRM that want a multi-channel engagement layer on top.
- Industry fit: All US higher-ed segments. Particularly strong for institutions with significant international or non-native-English student populations (106-language support), for admissions and enrollment use cases, and for financial aid inquiry deflection.
- Sales motion: Student success or enrollment management team procurement; often positioned as a multi-channel engagement complement to an existing CRM.
- Annual tooling budget: [UNKNOWN - no public rate card]; estimated $40K-$150K annually based on institution size and channel scope.
- Skip if: (a) You need a primary advising CRM with caseload management, appointment scheduling, and bidirectional SIS workflow - Ivy & Ocelot is a student self-service and engagement layer; (b) you need SOC 2 Type II certification with audit date at procurement; (c) Gravyty's product roadmap priority for the Ivy & Ocelot line vs. advancement products is a concern and cannot be resolved by direct vendor inquiry; (d) you need published pricing before a sales conversation; (e) your institution runs Workday Student as its primary SIS and needs named native Workday integration.
Right-of-reply
Ivy & Ocelot (by Gravyty) received this tear-sheet seven calendar days before publication of the Yardstick Research 2026 Yardstick Report, including all measured numbers, sample outputs, and editorial assessment. Gravyty was given the opportunity to flag factual errors - incorrect pricing, misquoted feature availability, outdated screenshots, factual misstatement in the editorial assessment. Gravyty was not given the opportunity to request a score revision, dispute the rubric or its weights, withdraw from inclusion, negotiate ranking placement, or suggest changes to the editorial assessment beyond factual correction. Where Gravyty flagged a factual correction, the correction was applied if verified and noted here; where Gravyty disputed scoring, the dispute is recorded in the appendix but the score stands. Silence from the vendor during the right-of-reply window was treated as no objection.
Sources
Gravyty first-party: - https://www.gravyty.com/ - https://www.gravyty.com/ivy-ocelot/ - https://www.gravyty.com/about/ - https://www.gravyty.com/blog/ - https://www.gravyty.com/technology/compliance-accessibility/
Ivy.ai (predecessor): - https://ivy.ai/