YellowRockets.vc is a managing company for international and russian venture capital funds. The fund focused on startups at Pre-Seed, Seed, and Round A-stages with a strong team and the potential for international expansion, and invest in them up to $2M. YellowRockets helps portfolio companies enter the U.S. and Latin American markets and attract investments in the next rounds. Funds focused on (but are not limited to) investments in companies in SaaS, Super Apps, Marketplaces, RPA, Metaverse, ESG, and based on AI/ML, Automation, Cloud Solutions, Data Processing, and Blockchain technologies.

YellowRockets

LETA Capital is a venture firm investing in early-stage b2c and b2b software startups. LETA Capital was founded by a successful IT entrepreneur Alexander Chachava, who invested his money and experience. We believe that enthusiastic entrepreneurs can present the world with new values. Our fund aims to support innovative IT startup companies at their seed or early growth stage. In 2018 LETA Capital raised its second $50 mln fund. In 2021 it introduced the third fund and is now in an active investment period till 2024. We aim at long-term cooperation and help talented teams. https://bit.ly/LetaCapitalManifesto

LETA Capital

Sand Hill Angels is a group of Silicon Valley angel investors passionate about helping entrepreneurs get to the next level. What makes the group unique is the collective experience of its members building and scaling deep technology companies. The group has been around for more than two decades. Sand Hill Angels works openly and collaboratively with venture capital funds, other angel organizations, and the Bay Area ecosystem that fosters the growth of technology startups.  For additional information, visit www.sandhillangels.com or follow @SandHillAngels.com on Twitter.

Sand Hill Angels

Joint Journey finds attractive start-up projects and guide the business to growth and success. The company was established in 2016, under the laws of Cyprus.

JOINT JOURNEY

BITKRAFT Ventures was founded in 2015 by german serial entrepreneur, Jens Hilgers. BITKRAFT’s team is located in Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Madrid and Lisbon covering videogames and esports investments not only digitally but in the most relevant and busy metropoles for digital entertainment in the Western world.

BITKRAFT Ventures

Goodwater empowers exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere to change the world for the better. They believe consumer technology is a force on earth, shaping culture and transforming the global economy at unprecedented speed and scale. They invest in promising entrepreneurs to solve pressing problems. As a combined force, Goodwater companies are a global force for change, poised to measurably improve billions of lives.

Goodwater Capital

Point72 Ventures is a global venture capital firm that invests primarily in Fintech, AI/ML, and Enterprise technologies. As an independent arm of Point72, the global asset management firm led by Steven Cohen, Point72 Ventures offers well-informed insights into the global economy. Point72 Ventures has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stamford, Connecticut.

Point72 Ventures

Educapital are entrepreneurs in venture capital.Educapital combine strong financial and entrepreneurship backgrounds.Educapital invest in innovative European companies with the highest potential to scale and become European and global leaders.Educapital offer their portfolio companies access to a large edtech community.

Educapital

One Way Ventures is a seed-stage fund that invests in immigrant tech founders. The firm helps immigrant founders to start their businesses and companies in the US. It was founded in 2017 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

One Way Ventures

J Ventures is a venture capital firm. They move fast on decisions, are patient with growth timelines, and hustle to help entrepreneurs reach their goals.

J Ventures

Buddy.ai

Buddy.ai teaches over a million children worldwide to speak English with our voice-based virtual tutor. With proprietary speech and virtual human technologies, the company is solving conversational AI for language learning.  Buddy provides a month of learning for the cost of one live tutoring session. That means 500 million children worldwide will soon have access to affordable 1:1 English speaking practice.   Buddy works for native Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Polish speakers, with more languages coming soon.  The company raised $3M of venture capital, generated over $4.5M in sales, and is entering the scaling stage. Our mobile holds the Top 10 positions on the App Store’s Kids and Education charts in several major countries throughout Latin America and Europe. Buddy.ai holds multiple international awards and nominations, including GESA (Global Edtech Startup Awards) in London, EnlightEd in Madrid, and Voice Summit Awards in New York, among others.     Headquartered in Mountain View, California we are a growing international team combining expertise in voice and virtual human technologies, education, and game design.

Founded in 2017, MyBuddy.ai is the developer of Buddy the Robot, a voice-based educational game. In March 2020, the company merged with Edwin, the developer of an adaptive learning technology and English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) curriculum, with the combined entity being known as MyBuddy.ai. The new company will revamp Buddy the Robot to produce a new, artificial intelligence-based English-teaching robot companion for children, reducing the need for human tutors. At the time of merger, Edwin was being used by more than 800,000 learners in Latin America, Japan, and Korea, and MyBuddy.ai reported 17,000 paying subscribers—a figure that increased to 20,000 as of April 2020.

Remote learning is driving an education technology revolution.

EdTech: K-12

MyBuddy.ai

AI tutor for children, Buddy.ai, nabs $11M in Seed funding

Founded in 2017, MyBuddy.ai is the developer of Buddy the Robot, a voice-based educational game. In March 2020, the company merged with Edwin, the developer of an adaptive learning technology and English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) curriculum, with the combined entity being known as MyBuddy.ai. The new company will revamp Buddy the Robot to produce a new, artificial intelligence-based English-teaching robot companion for children, reducing the need for human tutors. At the time of merger, Edwin was being used by more than 800,000 learners in Latin America, Japan, and Korea, and MyBuddy.ai reported 17,000 paying subscribers—a figure that increased to 20,000 as of April 2020.In April 2020, Mybuddy.ai raised USD 1 million in seed capital for product development and geographic expansion.

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

<div>
 Buddy.ai has managed to gain EUR 10.2 million (about USD 10.8 million) through seed funding. This aid came mainly from BITKRAFT Ventures and Educapital.
 The new influx has raised the total funding for Buddy.ai to approximately EUR 12 million (USD 12.7 million). The funds are planned to be employed to improve AI technology, broaden partnerships, and upgrade app features.
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MyBuddy.ai

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