Point Nine Capital is a Berlin-based venture capital firm focused exclusively on early-stage Internet investments in areas like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), online marketplaces, and mobile. The fund and its managers, Pawel Chudzinski and Christoph Janz have backed a number of highly successful Internet companies such as Delivery Hero, Clio, Shiftplanning, Vend, Typeform, and Zendesk from their earliest stages.

Point Nine

Yaletown Partners specializes in investing in software, data, and device technologies. It invests in technology companies that improve industry and enterprise productivity and sustainability, to help accelerate their growth, shorten exit timeframes, and accomplish strong exit premiums. With offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Montréal, and a growing presence in Toronto, Yaletown is led by a national team that contributes almost 100 years of technology-industry experience and a network of extensive industry relationships.

Yaletown Partners

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

Investing at the intersection of people and technology.

Fresco Capital

Kymbask Investments operates as a venture capital company. Kymbask Investments prefers to make investments in the tablets, mobile devices, education, software and related services sectors.

Kymbask Investments

Azure Capital Partners provides develops products based upon a technology that allows them to compete effectively with much larger incumbents and that enables time to market advantage It seeks to invest in the internet and information technology sector with a focus on software, media, infrastructure technologies, mobile, communications services and equipment, mobility solutions, and communications applications, web, and digital media.

Azure Capital Partners

Bluesky Equities primarily invests in both private and public companies at various stages of development. It has significant holdings in energy, real estate development, distilling, multi-family rental units, technology, venture capital, and alternative investments.

Bluesky Equities

Advanced Technology Centre is a business incubator for growth-stage technology companies in Edmonton. It has developed a stimulating, collaborative environment that gives fledgling companies and hardworking entrepreneurs the flexibility and support they need in the early stages of taking their product to market. Located in the Edmonton Research Park, and managed by the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, ATC provides both a physical space and robust network to its members. With its focus on delivering valuable programs, advice, and access to support, ATC promotes collaboration amongst innovators, entrepreneurs, and industry experts.

Advanced Technology Centre

There is more to choosing an investor than selecting the term sheet with the highest valuation. Strategic capital, in its true form, extends the founding team’s capacity. That’s what we do at Rhino. We invest in companies where we can add tangible value.  We’ve been on the other side of the table and appreciate the importance of funder and founder alignment. From startup, growth to exit; it is entrepreneurial ambition that drives value, not venture capitalists. We invest in individuals; trust and values fit are a centerpiece in every investment.

Rhino Ventures

Aventrock Ventures is a Calgary-based family venture fund. The firm consists of passionate strategists who believe in supporting entrepreneurialism to improve the world around. It invests its own capital, shares its expertise and network to help the business reach its full potential.

Aventrock Ventures

Showbie

Showbie combines all of the essential tools for assignments, feedback, and communication in one easy-to-use platform.  Showbie's features were designed with teachers and students in mind. Teachers can get set up and start using Showbie's powerful platform within minutes. Teachers who use Showbie love how it transforms their classrooms into engaging, collaborative, and organized learning environments. Showbie's suite of tools make it easy to give rich, differentiated feedback to students, so everyone gets the help they need to succeed. Showbie allows students to share files and ideas with each other, ensuring everyone is on the same page and encouraging collaboration.  Showbie lets teachers work with their peers and easily engage with families. Teachers can set up groups to work directly with colleagues, share best practices, or discuss the needs of particular students. Parents can easily be part of the conversation too; teachers can set up groups just for families where they can post class updates and even permission slips.  Because of its easy-to-use, intuitive design, it's no surprise that teachers love Showbie. A 2018 Showbie survey (http://ow.ly/T30r30l0H5j) found that 98% of teachers said it was easy to use and implement and 97% said it helped them improve feedback and speed up grading. With more than 3 million users worldwide, Showbie is poised to become the leading platform for the digital classroom.

<div>Founded in 2012 by Colin Bramm and Roy Pombeiro, Showbie is a classroom workflow platform offering educational tools designed to increase teacher productivity, identify struggling students, and keep administrators up-to-date with classroom learning objectives. Showbie also provides analytics allowing educators to track platform usage. The platform is available in free and subscription-based versions with about 65% of its customers using the paid version. In 2018, the company acquired Socrative, a developer of formative assessment tools for teachers, from MasteryConnect.</div>

Remote learning is driving an education technology revolution.

EdTech: K-12

Showbie Adds Popular Augmented Reality and Coding Apps to a Growing Kit of Educational Tools

<div>
 
 Founded in 2012 by Colin Bramm and Roy Pombeiro, Showbie is a classroom workflow platform offering educational tools designed to increase teacher productivity, identify struggling students, and keep administrators up-to-date with classroom learning objectives. Showbie also provides analytics allowing educators to track platform usage. The platform is available in free and subscription-based versions with about 65% of its customers using the paid version. In 2018, the company acquired Socrative, a developer of formative assessment tools for teachers, from MasteryConnect.
 
 
 As of August 2020, more than 3 million educators had registered on the platform and, as of February 2021, 55,000 teachers across more than 135 countries were using the platform each month. Based in Canada, the company’s core markets are the US, the UK, and Europe.
 
 
 In February 2021, Showbie raised an additional CAD 7.5 million (approximately USD 5.9 million) in Series A funding after initially raising CAD 5 million (around USD 3.9 million) in August 2020. The new funding will be used for expanding the company’s sales and marketing efforts and its presence in Latin America, accelerating product development such as ​launching a new app in the Google Play Store, and improving reporting and administrator-focused features.
 
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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

Showbie

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