Three education companies took center stage in a meeting with financiers, philanthropists, and researchers about “impact investing” that was co-sponsored by the Aspen Institute.
AT&T, RedShelf, CodeHS, and TeachMate365 headlined an active week of K-12 venture capital.
Plans are underway to wind down the New Schools Venture Fund’s seed fund, which has supported education efforts with philanthropic dollars.
Citelighter, an ed-tech startup with an online platform designed to break the writing process down into simple steps, raised $2 million in Seed-2 financing.
Apollo Education Group, parent company of the University of Phoenix, formed its own venture capital platform as it seeks to invest in budding education entrepreneurs.
Venture capitalists poured $642 million into K-12 companies in 2014, a 32 percent jump over the previous year, according to the NewSchools Venture Fund.
Clever raised $30 million, Everspring attracted $10 million, and SurveyMonkey raised $250 million this month.
KnowRe, an app that personalizes Math instruction based on student progress, raised $6.8 million in venture capital.
Goldman Sachs and other investors are financing a $17 million social impact bond for the Chicago Public Schools’ expansion of a pre-K program.
While money continues to pour into ed tech at a strong pace, the number of deals by “smart-money VC firms” has slowed in 2014, according to CB Insights.