Mistletoe is a hub for startups and the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem. It specifically provides learning opportunities for entrepreneurs, facilitates startup communities, invests in and supports startup companies and venture capitals.

Mistletoe

Angel Invest is one of Europe's most active early-stage funds, making 50+ investments every year into European technology startups at the pre-seed and seed stages (€100k checks). We actively coach founders and give them access to our networks.

Angel Invest

27V backs thoughtful founders building the future of learning and labor. The Fund invests $500k in global EdTech and Future of Work startups, leading Pre-Seed rounds and investing at Seed. The firm derives their edge from: (1) proactively sourcing deals based on internal micro theses; (2) being a high conviction first check investor; and (3) leveraging portfolio community for weekly peer-to-peer learning sessions and deal diligence.

27V (Twenty Seven Ventures)

s16vc is an early-stage founder-centric angel fund. The fund focuses on early stage technology investments, operating globally in Europe, and the US. We have brought together more than 80 founders & operators to support early stage companies in their growth.  Fund partners are active founders and operators:  - Oleg Bibergan - Co-founder & Co-Managing Partner at s16vc, venture investor & corporate finance executive with 15 years of experience spanning early, growth, and late stage deals as equity investor with GS SSG, Kismet Capital Group, and personal angel portfolio - Aleks Shamis - Co-founder & Co-Managing Partner at s16vc. Ex-Deputy CEO at Borzodelivery.com (global on-demand delivery business, operating in 10 countries) - Mike Peregudov - Founder & CEO at Pivot.ws (EdTech startup in the US market), Food Party (exit to Yandex)   - Leo Batalov - Partner, Global Co-Head of Emerging Growth Companies & Venture Capital at DLA Piper, top international law firm - Egor Rudi - Founder & CEO at Profi.ru (leading services marketplace in Eastern Europe), Co-founder at Hands.ru (first Uber-like marketplace in home improvement market) - Tolya Marin - Founder at Payment systems (fintech company with profit per employee > PayPal & 20m installs/ 5m MAU) - Andrey Khusid - Founder and CEO of Miro, the world's most popular visual collaboration platform Being founders ourselves, we are confident that people succeed, not ideas, and feel immense respect for every founder who perseveres to the point of creating impact and monetizable value.  We invest in teams who share our values:  -  People succeed, not ideas - Community, not individual - Trust - Transparency - Intrinsic motivation to help - Pay forward - Beginner mindset

s16vc

The bina School

bina is a digital primary school ecosystem made to provide customised learning at scale. We are an early-stage startup backed by Silicon Allee in Berlin and are in the last stages of closing our initial funding round, led by Taizo Son at Mistletoe. Currently, bina offers: - Personalised education to ages 4-12 in tiny classes of no more than 8 students. - Master teachers delving into STEAM-based learning using curated 3rd party tech and a storytelling narrative. - Classes and teachers are assigned into carefully matched learning groups to get the best and most enjoyable learning experience. We are building bina in two phases: The bina School operates as a comprehensive, synchronous, international primary school marketed directly to parents and HR departments. This school acts as a high-quality, cost-effective development of the product and brand.  bina-as-a-service offers accreditation, teacher training and methodology, licensed globally to public and private educational systems.  Once established, precision education will cross social, economic and geographic barriers.

Founded in 2019 by Noam Gerstein, Bina is a Berlin-based primary education provider that specializes in personalized primary education for children aged 4 to 12. To this end, the company uses adaptive learning paths, small six-person classes, tech-savvy teachers with a minimum of eight years of experience, and data-driven research and decision-making. By 2024, the team plans to launch Bina-as-a-service, partnering with NGOs, governments, and schools systems to circumvent barriers to education around the world.

Remote learning is driving an education technology revolution.

EdTech: K-12

Bina

Founded in 2019 by Noam Gerstein, Bina is a Berlin-based primary education provider that specializes in personalized primary education for children aged 4 to 12. To this end, the company uses adaptive learning paths, small six-person classes, tech-savvy teachers with a minimum of eight years of experience, and data-driven research and decision-making. By 2024, the team plans to launch Bina-as-a-service, partnering with NGOs, governments, and schools systems to circumvent barriers to education around the world.In August 2021, Bina raised USD 1.4 million in funding in a round led by Taizo Son, with participation from Jutta Steiner (founder, Parity Technologies). The funds will be used for research and development, team expansion, and operations.

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

Bina

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