Newsela

Founded in 2013, Newsela takes authentic, real-world content from trusted original content providers and converts it into classroom-ready learning materials. Each text is published at five reading levels, making content accessible to every learner. The materials also include instructional supports such as assessments, lesson ideas, and professional development programs mapped to learning standards by subject and grade. As of February 2021, Newsela’s catalog included more than 14,000 standards-aligned texts across more than 20 genres, selected from more than 175 trusted publishers. The platform was used by 37 million registered students and 2.5 million registered teachers across 90% of US schools.The company acquired HapYak, an interactive video software company, in October 2021, marking its first acquisition and a decisive move to supplement its content offering with videos. Newsela plans to leverage HapYak to disrupt the conventional educational video market by adding a layer of interactivity to the thousands of videos on the HapYak content library. Newsela also acquired natural learning AI assets from Fluent City, a language learning company, and later sold Fluent City’s language learning capabilities to Brightcove, an online video platform. The acquisition allows Newsela to improve analysis of the text that is licensed from content providers to support content curation, modifications, and recommendations for its users.

Key customers and partnerships

In November 2020, Newsela partnered with Verint Systems, Inc. to incorporate its Verint Community platform solution to scale the Newsela community. The Newsela community was launched at the beginning of the school year in August 2020, and a total of 22,000 members have joined thus far, with an average of 1,500 new members signing up weekly. Formed to support the new virtual learning environment, the Newsela community has several specialized groups, or micro-communities, enabling educators to collaborate and share ideas and best practices. The “Teachers’ Lounge,” for instance, is used to discuss remote-learning challenges.

Funding and financials

In February 2021, the company raised USD 100 million in Series D funding for content and platform development and expanding the company’s customer base.