Index Ventures is a venture capital firm which helps entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.

Index Ventures

Floodgate Fund is a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investments in technology companies. It was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Floodgate

Slow Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on investing in companies central to the technology industry as well as those operating at the intersection of science, society, and culture. The firm seeks to support innovative ideas and solutions that shape the future across various sectors.

Slow Ventures

Formation 8 is a venture capital firm that provides financial and strategic capital to early growth smart enterprise and energy technology companies. They support entrepreneurs who seek to transform the most important global industries by solving hard problems with technology solutions. Partnership is in their DNA. Formation 8 value trusted relationships with entrepreneurs, investors, and strategic partners through their global network.  As a partner to young companies, Formation 8's goal is to create long-term, sustainable value through operational expertise and business development partnerships. Formation 8 leverage their deep and distributed networks to provide the market knowledge, deployment expertise, sales channels, and relationships needed to expand into and thrive in Asia. With local teams in Korea, China and Singapore, Formation 8 connect Silicon Valley start-ups to dynamic multinational corporations in these geographies.

Formation 8

ACME Capital is a venture capital and private equity firm that invests in breakthrough technologies that fuel platform shifts and disruptive business models that capitalize on new platforms. Its purpose is to support those founders who choose to take their capital.  The firm was founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

ACME Capital

Sesame Ventures supports startups aligned with Sesame Workshop's mission to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Sesame Ventures

Soma Capital is a fund built by founders for founders that focuses on software. It has invested seed in startups now worth over $60 billion combined including Cruise, Rappi, Ironclad, Human Interest, Razorpay, Rippling, and Lambda School among others (20 unicorns) It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Soma Capital

StartX is a 501(c)(3) Stanford-affiliated nonprofit in Silicon Valley that runs one of the world’s top startup accelerator programs. Its mission is to advance the development of the best entrepreneurs through experiential education and peer learning. Since launching in 2010, it has supported more than 450 companies and 1000 entrepreneurs, from early to pre-IPO stage, working across a wide spectrum of industries.    StartX and StartX Med, dedicated to medical and biotechnology innovation, provide founders with access to a powerful network of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and industry partners, along with office space and a variety of other resources. Based in Palo Alto, the accelerator also operates StartX-QB3 Labs and the Stanford-StartX Fund. We are funded by Stanford University, Stanford Health Care, Microsoft, Steelcase, Hyundai, Oriza Ventures, Nissan, Panasonic, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Analog Devices, Silicon Valley Bank, Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, and many others. For more information, visit startx.com The company is associated investment vehicle, the Stanford-StartX Fund is a partnership between StartX, Stanford University and Stanford Health Care.  It can invest only in StartX companies who raise qualified rounds of venture capital using objective criteria; it is founder opt-in.

StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund)

Human Capital is a venture firm for builders. We believe ambitious builders turn great ideas into great companies. We invest in founders, teams, and startups that share this mindset. In the last 6 years, that mantra has led us to invest in 15 companies before they became unicorns, including Snowflake, Anduril, Livongo, and Brex (where we wrote the first check). We have over $1.3B in total capital committed and we've built a community of over 5,000 incredible, driven, ambitious builders.

Human Capital

Yup.com

Yup, a San Francisco-based education technology company, is on a mission to provide all students with access to the people and technology that will help them thrive. Founded in 2014, The Yup app provides students with math tutoring when they need it, quickly and conveniently accessed over a mobile phone or tablet. Students are matched with vetted tutors according to their math level and learning needs, ensuring that each 1:1 tutoring session is personalized and effective in providing academic support. Yup tutors are trained in our proprietary teaching methodology that combines Stanford University-developed practices and leading educational research.

<div>Yup provides on-demand tutoring services for math, connecting tutors with students in real time. Founded by Naguib S. Sawiris as MathCrunch, it was rebranded Yup in April 2016 with the addition of homework help in chemistry and physics. However, Yup ceased its science coverage in 2018 to focus exclusively on math. The tutoring service is offered over a chat-like environment: the student submits a question via text or photo, the app matches the question with available tutors and the selected tutor guides the student via chat or images to solve the problem.</div>

Remote learning is driving an education technology revolution.

EdTech: K-12

<div>
 
 Yup provides on-demand tutoring services for math, connecting tutors with students in real time. Founded by Naguib S. Sawiris as MathCrunch, it was rebranded Yup in April 2016 with the addition of homework help in chemistry and physics. However, Yup ceased its science coverage in 2018 to focus exclusively on math. The tutoring service is offered over a chat-like environment: the student submits a question via text or photo, the app matches the question with available tutors and the selected tutor guides the student via chat or images to solve the problem.
 
 
 Not wanting to be a homework outsourcing company, Yup developed its own four-step framework (“Personalized Inquiry Learning”) that tutors are required to follow which includes identifying gaps in understanding, asking guiding questions, and introducing a new problem at the end of the session to make sure the student has grasped the concepts underlying their homework.
 
 
 In May 2017, Yup acquired Quickhelp, an on-demand tutoring startup and a Harvard Innovation Labs venture that connects graduate and undergraduate students with tutors that charge a fee. The company’s most recent funding round was in June 2018, when it raised an undisclosed sum in seed funding.
 
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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.
 
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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. 
 
 
 
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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

Yup.com

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