Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that focuses on SaaS, consumer, marketplaces, hardware, and new technology startups. The firm currently investing out of two funds: a $200M Seed fund (Fund VII) and a $200M Opportunity fund (Plus III) earmarked for larger investments in mature, existing portfolio companies. Uncork Capital, formerly SoftTech VC was founded in 2004 and is based in Palo Alto, California, United States. Uncork Capital has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Uncork Capital

Google Ventures invests in sectors including life sciences, consumer, enterprise, crypto, climate, and frontier technology. With Alphabet as its sole limited partner, Google Ventures focuses on long-term investments. Its operating partners assist startups in design, equity, diversity & inclusion, talent, and engineering and help them connect with Google for technology and expertise. Founded in 2009 as Google Ventures, Google Ventures manages over $8 billion in assets with 400 active portfolio companies in North America and Europe. Some notable investments include Uber, Nest, Slack, GitLab, and One Medical. Google Ventures is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with offices in Cambridge, New York, and London.

Google Ventures

SV Angel is a service organization, investing in founders who share these values. They support entrepreneurs in building lasting companies by assisting at key inflection points and leveraging networks to help them propel their businesses forward.

SV Angel

Imagine K12 is a startup accelerator that provides support and funding to tech companies focused on the education market. Starting a company is hard, and the education market presents unique challenges. At Imagine K12 we have a singular goal: improving your company’s chances of success. We do this through a combination of strategic advice, mentorship, seminars designed to help founders make better decisions, highly engaged networks of entrepreneurs and educators, and $100,000 of initial funding.

Imagine K12

Webb Investment Network is an investment firm that particularly in mobile, consumer Internet, and cloud applications. With its Affiliate Network, the firm draws not only from Maynard’s experience and insight but from those CEOs, CTOs, founders, and investors who make up the WIN Affiliate Network to provide our portfolio companies with on-demand advice and support.

Webb Investment Network

A-Grade Investments is a venture capital fund founded by long-time friends Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Ron Burkle to opportunistically invest in technology start-up companies.

A-Grade Investments

Startup:Education is a new foundation launched by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg with $100 million in September, 2010. Their mission is to take a startup approach to building a better education system for all students.  Startup:Education's initial focus is Newark, N.J., working to transform the city's public schools so that all children have access to a high quality education and so that other cities can use Newark as a model to reform their own schools.

Startup:Education

The YEI Innovation Fund offers $3 million in funding to eligible Yale startups. The Fund was created in September 2013 by Yale University in partnership with Connecticut Innovations and First Niagara Bank in order to provide Yale startups with hard-to-find early-stage investment capital. Elm Street Ventures, a seed and early-stage venture fund based in New Haven, Connecticut, is managing the Fund.

YEI Innovation Fund

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that provides funding and mentorship to early-stage companies. It offers a program where startups receive guidance from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The organization helps founders in their business models and develop their products. Y Combinator serves industries such as technology, healthcare, and finance.

Y Combinator

Initialized Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on the seed. Initialized has 6 investing partners and over $3.2B under management over five core funds since its founding in 2012. The firm's startups have created in aggregate over $200B in market value so far.

Initialized Capital

Spark Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in exceptional products and the creative individuals behind them. Known for embracing risk and a unique approach, Spark Capital has backed companies like Twitter, Discord, Anthropic, Cruise, Niantic, Oculus, Warby Parker, and Tumblr. Recognizing that there are no set playbooks or formulas for success, the firm supports founders in achieving success on their own terms. Spark Capital invests across all sectors and stages, operating out of San Francisco, Boston, and New York City.

Spark Capital

Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies. The firm has invested in 24 companies across the education spectrum encompassing early childhood, K-12, higher education, and career mobility/professional learning. Owl leverages its deep domain expertise and takes an active hands-on approach to help entrepreneurs scale their businesses into transformative category-leading companies. The firm was founded in 2014 and has over $600 million in assets under management.

Owl Ventures

Emerson Collective is an organization dedicated to removing barriers to opportunity so people can live to their full potential. Established and led by Laurene Powell Jobs, we center our work on education, immigration reform, the environment, and other social justice initiatives. We use a wide range of tools and strategies—partnering with entrepreneurs and experts, parents and policymakers, advocates and administrators—to develop and execute innovative solutions that will spur change and promote equality.

Emerson Collective

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative supports strong, independent leaders from academia and government, as well as the technology and non-profit sectors, to do the work possible. They engage directly in the communities they serve because no one understands their society’s challenges like those who live with them every day. These partners help them identify problems and opportunities, learn fast, and iterate toward their goals for the next century.

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Blue Ivy Ventures is a community of Yale alumni: investors, executives, entrepreneurs, and innovation enthusiasts with a connection to Yale University.   Blue Ivy Ventures was founded in 2016 and is led by Managing Partner David Shapiro (Yale '91). Its Investment Committee and investors include experienced investors and entrepreneurs from around the country and across multiple generations.

Blue Ivy Ventures

General Atlantic is a private equity firm that provides capital and strategic support for growth companies. General Atlantic combines a collaborative approach, sector-specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon, and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to build market businesses.

General Atlantic

Catamount Ventures focuses on investing in early stage startups. They back world-class entrepreneurs with a plan to change the world through innovation and creativity. Their capital, connections, and coaching help grow category leaders with a strong mission at their core.

Catamount Ventures

Tao Capital Partners invests in technology, transportation, healthcare, education, and food businesses that have a sustainable positive impact. It is an active investor that supports companies through various stages of their life-cycle. Tao Capital Partners was founded in 2002 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Tao Capital Partners

Panorama Education

Panorama Education brings the power of data to education through a SaaS platform used by hundreds of school districts across the US.  Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Panorama Education is a data analytics company for K-12 education. They help school districts, charter networks, and state governments conduct surveys of students, parents, teachers, and staff. Their classroom surveys collect feedback about individual teachers, and their school surveys gather data about the school environment and administrators. They believe that stakeholder feedback is a powerful professional development tool, and they believe that stakeholder surveys--when done correctly--make educator evaluation systems fairer and more effective.

<div>Founded in 2012 by Aaron Feuer, Alexander Tanner, and David Carel, Panorama Education offers data collection and analytics solutions from surveying students, teachers, and parents for use by educators to provide better academic and emotional support to their students. The company&rsquo;s suite of tools include research-backed school climate and social-emotional learning surveys, tiered intervention planning, and professional development. As of August 2021, over 25 million people had taken a Panorama survey. As of September 2021, the company&nbsp; serves 13 million students in 23,000 schools with over 1500 school districts including 50 of the largest 100 districts using Panorama.</div>

Remote learning is driving an education technology revolution.

EdTech: K-12

Panorama Education Appoints Seth Johnson as Chief Client Officer

<div>
 
 Founded in 2012 by Aaron Feuer, Alexander Tanner, and David Carel, Panorama Education offers data collection and analytics solutions from surveying students, teachers, and parents for use by educators to provide better academic and emotional support to their students. The company&rsquo;s suite of tools include research-backed school climate and social-emotional learning surveys, tiered intervention planning, and professional development. As of August 2021, over 25 million people had taken a Panorama survey. As of September 2021, the company&nbsp; serves 13 million students in 23,000 schools with over 1500 school districts including 50 of the largest 100 districts using Panorama.
 
 
 In August 2021, the company raised USD 60 million in a Series C financing round led by General Atlantic. The funds will be used to grow the employee base, accelerate product development, and increase district partnerships.
 
</div>

Founded in 2016, BookNook is an online literacy platform designed for learners in grades 1-5. Partnering with school districts and non-profit organizations, the company focuses on human-to-human learning and works with children one-on-one or in small groups, enabling it to gather rich, observational data. As of June 2021, the company partnered with hundreds of schools, school districts, and non-profits across 35 states.BookNook differs from other digital literacy tools by not requiring students to take formative assessments to check for their understanding. Rather, the platform lets teachers record qualitative data on oral fluency, such as whether a student pauses at punctuation marks as they read aloud, or reads in set phrases. Students can also record self-reflections on the platform.In June 2021, the company partnered with MIND Research Institute, a neuroscience and education social impact organization and creator of the PreK-8 visual instructional program ST Math, to deliver a High Dosage Tutoring program (HDT) for math to K-8 students to address unfinished learning. BookNook tutors will deliver tutoring sessions using the ST Math program over BookNook’s synchronous learning platform. The company launched a new teacher application portal at booknooktutor.com in October 2021, giving experienced teachers the opportunity to apply to become BookNook virtual tutors on its platform. BookNook intends to engage 10,000 virtual teachers to support 80,000 students by the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

BookNook

Story2 uses its proprietary Moments Method writing system, its StoryBuilder software, and live online group coaching to help high school students and professionals improve their writing, speaking, storytelling, and collaboration skills.The company aims to help different segments with their specific needs: students with college admission and scholarship essays, professionals preparing for interviews and creating cover letters, and business teams to improve sales, recruiting and company messaging through effective storytelling.Since 2013, Story2 has worked with more than 200,000 individuals in 21 countries with college admission essays, interview preparation, and pitching ideas. The company is expanding into China and India in 2020 and plans to focus on helping science and technology students improve their communication and leadership skills.

Story2

<div>
 
 Vooks offers a subscription-based, ad-free curated library of children's books converted to video with narration and some slow-paced animation, allowing children to read along while watching. Aimed at young children aged 6 months to 8 years, Vooks promotes reading aloud to develop fluency and comprehension. The company was founded by siblings Marshall Bex and Shannon Bex, and Russell Hirtzel, and is reportedly the first-ever streaming service for books with illustrations, read-along text and animations.
 
 
 In February 2020, Vooks raised USD 12 million in Series A funding; however, the investors and purpose of the funding were not disclosed. In November 2020, the company raised USD 21.9 million in equity investments from more than 30 investors.
 
 
 In November 2020, Vooks partnered with United Way of Metropolitan Dallas (UWMD), a community-based, nonprofit social change organization, and Atmos Energy, a natural gas distributor, to provide around 78,000 one-year Vooks subscriptions for children aged 3 to 6 and early education teachers in the Greater Dallas area. The program is funded by a USD 1 million contribution from Atmos Energy, and contributes to UWMD’s Aspire United 2030 education goal of increasing the number of North Texas students reading at grade level by third grade by 50%. Similarly, in March 2021, the company partnered with Reach Out and Read Of Greater New York (ROR GNY), a nonprofit organization of healthcare providers who promote early literacy. The partnership aims to provide more than 75,000 preschool children with one-year Vooks subscriptions starting in March 2021.
 
 
 In July 2021, it was reported that Vooks is offering its service to authors and producers as a way of quickly testing ideas with audiences through simple animated shorts. Thereby, Vooks expands its library of original content while authors and producers get real-time performance data.
 
</div>

Vooks

Xeropan offers an AI-powered, game-based approach to learning English through 14 of the most widely-spoken languages. As of October 2020, the app had more than one million players.

Xeropan

<div>
 
 GoGuardian is a provider of student security software solutions to help educators identify learning patterns, protect students from harmful and distracting content, and support students at risk of self-harm and suicide. As of August 2021, the company had partnered with more than 10,000 schools in the US, covering more than 22 million students.  
 
 
 In November 2020, GoGuardian announced a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/1863">
 merger with Pear Deck
 </a>
 to deepen the support provided to students and teachers and improve their in-class experience. Founded in 2014, Pear Deck is a student engagement platform that allows teachers to create, edit, and launch multimedia content and formative assessments on students' devices to increase student engagement. At the time of the merger, Pear Deck was used by 8 million educators and students in more than 17,000 schools worldwide. Pear Deck co-founder and Chief Educator, Michal Eynon-Lynch, will join the GoGuardian Board of Directors. In May 2022, the company acquired 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10683">
 TutorMe,
 </a>
 Zovio’s tutoring services business, for USD 55 million in cash to strengthen its product offering. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In August 2021, GoGuardian secured a USD 200 million investment from Tiger Global Management. The funds will be allocated for product innovation, talent acquisition, and business development. 
 
 
 
</div>

GoGuardian

Businesses providing education delivery solutions such as learning management systems (LMS), and tech solutions for data analytics, administration, and other services to educational institutions.

Businesses delivering curriculum-based learning, particularly relating to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to educational institutions and individual students.

Mostly for-profit corporations running state-funded, tuition-free schools as an alternative to traditional public schools.

Businesses providing extra-curricular education relating to the arts, hobbies, and life skills, and entities providing college and career guidance.

Businesses delivering English language arts (ELA) education, and language learning and literacy support to educational institutions and individual students.

Platforms providing students with after-school tutoring support on an individual or group basis.

Businesses delivering early childhood education, special education, and social-emotional learning (SEL) programs to educational institutions and individual students.

Entities providing professional development resources and tools for teachers, and those providing testing and assessment solutions to educational institutions and educators.

Platforms providing student-parent-teacher-school communication and networking solutions, and those providing search, reference, and marketplace solutions.

Companies that use GenAI as a core part of their product offering for EdTech: K12 solutions

Uses GenAI to provide interactive AI tutors, create personallized learning pathways,  and gamified learning solutions

Uses AI/ML to create personalized learning plans, adaptive learning platforms, and intelligent tutoring systems

Adaptive learning platforms, personalized learning plans, and AI-powered analytics provide insight into student performance

Learning platforms that promote an inclusive and equitable educational culture for underserved communities

Panorama Education

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