By guest blogger Kevin Connors

StudyBlue, a Wisconsin-based ed-tech startup, has caught the eye of venture capital once again, this time reigning in $1.7 million from three returning investors. 

Founded in 2009 by two University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates, the educational app developer has now raised a total of $17.1 million from outside investors. According to TechCrunch, the company secured $9.3 million of that funding during Series A-1 financing in 2013.  The Series A-1 investors, Great Oaks Venture Capital, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and StudyBlue Chairman Steve Wallman, were also the three investors during this latest round, Xconomy Wisconsin reports.

Traditionally targeting college students, StudyBlue plans to use these funds to continue their expansion into K-12 education. The company develops web and mobile-based apps that allow students to create and share study tools, such as flashcards, review sheets, and quizzes, for a host of subjects and grade-levels. There are currently over 200 million pieces of user-generated content available to members that can be accessed through a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

StudyBlue has shown promising growth in the last year, attracting over 1 million new users, which is surely one of the main reasons the company secured the $1.7 million from the three investors. They now have over 5.5 million students and educators using their site.

Moving forward, however, future investment likely depends on the company’s growth potential among K-8 students.  While high school and college audiences seem to be likely visitors for this study-app, convincing 5-14 year-olds to create and share flashcards may prove to be a more challenging task.