K-12 Dealmaking: Instructure Acquires LearnPlatform; Mathpresso Closes $70M Series C
Instructure acquired LearnPlatform in a deal the education software giant says will boost its ability to help users better manage ed-tech tools.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Based in North Carolina, LearnPlatform’s offerings are designed to help districts and states organize, streamline, and analyze ed-tech tools.
EdWeek Market Brief has reported extensively on LearnPlatform’s work in school districts, as the organization has have sought to help K-12 leaders evaluate — and in some cases, scale back — the use of ed-tech products, based on if teachers and students are actually spending time on them and view them as effective.
The organization last year supplemented its products for school districts with a new program aimed at vendors seeking to certify that their products are effective.
In acquiring the 70-person company, Instructure is doubling down on its efforts to build a robust partner ecosystem and an “open global education platform,” CEO Steve Daly said in a statement. Instructure employs about 1,300 people, according to its most recent annual report.
“We believe that adding these solutions gives our customers and partners even more ways to measure the impact of their investments and drive student outcomes for each and every student,” he said.
LearnPlatform has previously been backed by investors including New Markets Venture Partners and Emerson Collective, which led a $3.2 million funding round for the company in 2018.
“As institutions and districts seek to understand and improve the effectiveness of their digital learning environments, the combination of LearnPlatform and Instructure will accelerate access to the trustworthy, independent evidence they need to inform decisions, providing customers and partners unprecedented insight into the learning journey of students,” Karl Rectanus, CEO of LearnPlatform, said in a statement.
Prior LearnPlatform investors include Kaplan, AT&T, Edovate Capital, Techstars, and University Ventures.
Mathpresso closes extended Series C. Google-backed ed-tech company Mathpresso completed a $70 million extended series C funding round, the South Korea-based startup announced.
The news follows the company’s July 2021 announcement it had raised $50 million in a series C from investors including Yellowdog, GGV Capital, Goodwater Capital, and others.
The new funding disclosed this month brings the total round to $70 million, including investments from Signite Partners, a venture capital firm supported by retail company Shinsegae Group, and YBM, one of South Korea’s largest education companies. Previous investors Softbank Ventures, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment also participated.
In November, Mathpresso said Google invested in the company as well, but did not disclose the amount of the investment.
Founded in 2015, Mathpresso’s flagship product is the question-and-answer app Qanda that aims to help students with tutoring and homework help.
The company says it plans to use the new funding to upgrade vertical services for personalized learning experiences and to shore up its profitability. CEO Lee Yong adding the round is especially meaningful given economic pressures in the market.
“It is very meaningful to attract investment in a situation where investment sentiment is extremely depressed around the world. Lee Yong-jae, said in a statement.
Uolo raises $22.5 million from UAE-based VC firm. Indian ed-tech platform Uolo raised $22.5 million in a series A round led by Winter Capital, a venture capital fund based in the United Arab Emirates.
Dubai-based Morphosis Venture Capital and India-based Blume Ventures, both existing investors, also participated in the round.
The new funding follows the $3 million pre-series A, led by Blume Ventures and Omidyar Network India, that the company raised in 2020.
Uolo was founded in 2013 to offer students learning programs in coding and the English language, and has grown to become a business-to-business company that enables schools to offer online learning to students as part of current school fees.
The company’s strategy and approach is aimed at helping make online learning more accessible to students, and builds off the growth in interest in digital learning that the country has seen over the past decade.
“The first wave of ed-tech companies in India have proven consumer interest in online education,” said Anton Farlenkov, managing director of Winter Capital, in a statement. “However, they lacked a cost-effective distribution. We believe that there will be a new generation of ed-tech companies capable of building organic, low-cost distribution, allowing students to study at $10 per year rather than $10 per hour.”
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