Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that focuses on SaaS, consumer, marketplaces, hardware, and new technology startups. The firm currently investing out of two funds: a $200M Seed fund (Fund VII) and a $200M Opportunity fund (Plus III) earmarked for larger investments in mature, existing portfolio companies. Uncork Capital, formerly SoftTech VC was founded in 2004 and is based in Palo Alto, California, United States. Uncork Capital has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Uncork Capital

General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that provides early-stage and growth equity investments. The company provides ongoing momentum that accelerates ideas, careers, and companies toward standout success.

General Catalyst

Kapor Capital is an investment firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled startups. They are an Oakland-based fund that understands that startup companies have the ability to transform entire industries and to address urgent social needs as they do so. It was founded in 1999 and headquartered in Oakland, California.

Kapor Capital

Lerer Hippeau is a seed-stage venture capital firm founded and operated in New York City. Since 2010, they have invested in entrepreneurs with great ideas who aren’t afraid to do hard things. Their portfolio includes more than 400 enterprise and consumer businesses including Guideline, MIRROR, Blockdaemon, K Health, Allbirds, ZenBusiness, and Thrive. They’re experienced operators who invest early and stay in their founders’ corners as they build iconic companies.

Lerer Hippeau

NewSchools Venture Fund is a not-for-profit organization working to close the achievement gap by funding and supporting entrepreneurs who are creating innovative solutions to the problems in public education so that all children have the opportunity to succeed in college and beyond.  Since our founding in 1998, NewSchools has invested $180 million in more than 70 nonprofit and for-profit educational organizations working to promote student achievement.  Recognizing that neither private charity nor capital markets alone are enough to solve the problem of education inequality, we blend the best of both approaches to ensure an excellent education is available to every child. We actively share what we’ve learned through our investments, bring together educational leaders from across the country, and advocate for smart policies at the federal level.

NewSchools Venture Fund

Start Fund, created in January 2011, is a joint venture between [Yuri Milner](http://www.crunchbase.com/person/yuri-milner) and [SV Angel](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/sv-angel). The fund was created to invest in Y Combinator startups and[ made its first set of investments](http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/28/yuri-milner-sv-angel-offer-every-new-y-combinator-startup-150k/) in January 2011.

Start Fund

Morado Ventures is focused on high-growth, seed-stage technology companies, with particular emphasis on “Data-fueled” businesses. The firm currently invests in Artificial Intelligence, Data Infrastructure, Industrial Internet, Robotics & Autonomy, Computer Vision, and Health. Morado Ventures was founded in 2010 and is based in Palo Alto, California, United States.

Morado Ventures

LearnCapital is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on funding entrepreneurs with a vision for better and smarter learning. They believe that the future is shaped by the way we teach and learn in the present, and that we’re in the middle of one of the great revolutions in the history of education. New technology platforms, applications, and services are not only amplifying and augmenting classroom learning, but creating a world in which any Internet-enabled device can become a classroom on demand.

Learn Capital

Shasta Ventures invests in startups in sectors. Their program consists of a proven methodology and a set of comprehensive playbooks that dive deep into the obstacles and challenges of early-stage startups. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to early-stage, so this agile program allows founders to tap into the resources they need when they need them.

Shasta Ventures

Felicis Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors and industries reinventing core markets, as well as those creating frontier technologies. Felicis currently manages over $2B in capital across 8 funds. The firm is an early backer of more than 40 companies valued at $1B+. More than 90 of its portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public since the firm was founded by Aydin Senkut in 2006.

Felicis

SV Angel is a San Francisco-based venture fund. Their experience spans helping companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Databricks, DoorDash, Faire, Flexport, GitHub, Notion, Pinterest, Snap, Square, and Stripe Scale. Over the last 30 years of investing, their core values of trust, loyalty, and integrity along with a founder-first approach have driven our strategy. They are a service organization, investing in founders who share these values. They support entrepreneurs in building lasting companies by assisting at key inflection points and leveraging networks to help them propel their businesses forward.

SV Angel

DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost. Deep Tech is a potent approach to this challenge that enables more for less - now and for this century. The transformative companies in their portfolio combine the latest advances in science and technology with unique computing and algorithmic advantage, reducing CAPEX and OPEX.

DCVC

SoftTech operates as an IT consultancy business with a focus on the energy sector to capitalise on the need for specialist IT technical services particularly in the Oil and Gas sector.

SoftTech

We invest in smart people solving hard problems, often difficult scientific or engineering problems. Importantly, we believe the brightest and most creative problem solvers seek the hardest and most interesting problems, and gathering the best technical talent is a major competitive advantage.  Advances in cloud and other computing technologies radically reduce the costs of starting and running new businesses, creating opportunities for outsized returns. We invest in teams we believe in and our experience suggests that finding good founding teams and leaving them in place tends to produce higher returns overall.  As a corollary, we resist shackling a company to its original business model. Businesses really do evolve over time and changing models in the early years is anything but a sign of weakness. We do not expect that the first business model for a company will be the final or best business model and do not see evolution as a negative. The most powerful minds are the ones that can be changed.  We believe that substantially all of our investments should be directed to companies with an audacious vision seeking enormous markets. So, we will continue to invest in very talented entrepreneurs who are pursuing ambitious, challenging tasks. We will treat them with respect and hope for the best.

Kortschak Investments L.P.

Reach supports entrepreneurs that develops technology solutions for challenges across early childhood, K-12, higher education, and workforce reskilling and upskilling. They invest in early-stage tech tools, applications, content, and services to improve educational opportunities for all learners. The Fund also acts as a catalyst, inspiring and enabling traditional and non-traditional investors to provide capital to the fast-growing ed-tech market.

Reach Capital

Uprising is a fund and platform to catalyze epic entrepreneurial endeavors that matter. The firm prefers to make seed, early and later-stage investments. Lyft, Change.org, PeerIQ, Lending Club, Upworthy, AltSchool, ClassDojo, Minerva, Zopa, Grow Local Project. It was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

Uprising Ventures

SignalFire is a complete redesign of the modern venture firm based on six years of careful study, development, and iteration on how to fuel today's entrepreneur. Their distributed network approach gives access to some entrepreneurs, product, and engineering leaders in virtually every key discipline and industry, provided by a centralized team of investors and engineers trained at General Catalyst, Bessemer, KPCB, Google, and Yahoo. They have developed a centralized infrastructure to help with recruiting, business development, customer acquisition as well as educational and community events. They invest in leaders with an uncommon passion and perspective for leveraging data and technology solutions to upend substantial markets.

SignalFire

GSV Ventures is a global venture capital fund focused on the rapidly growing digital education market from Pre-K to Gray. We back early and late stage entrepreneurs transforming the $7 trillion digital education and future of work sectors. Investments include Coursera, ClassDojo, Degreed, and Guild Education. GSV is also the convener of the world renowned ASU+GSV Summit. The 11th annual summit gathered 35,000 founders, investors, educators, and policy makers from 135 countries.

GSV Ventures

Buckley Ventures is a venture capital firm founded by Josh Buckley.

Buckley Ventures

Tencent is an internet service portal offering value-added internet, mobile, telecom, and online advertising services. Its communications and social platforms Weixin and QQ connect users with each other, with digital content and daily life services in just a few clicks.  Tencent has maintained steady growth under its user-oriented operating strategies. It provides value-added internet, mobile, and telecom services, as well as online advertising under the strategic goal of providing users with ''one-stop online lifestyle services.'' Tencent’s Internet platforms in China – QQ (QQ Instant Messenger), WeChat, QQ.com, QQ Games, Qzone, 3g.QQ.com, SoSo, PaiPai, and Tenpay – aim to address the various needs of internet users, including communication, information, entertainment, e-commerce, and others. In September 2013, Tencent's market valuation rose to $101 billion, and as of November 21, 2013, QQ had 2 billion active users and WeChat had 650 million monthly active users. The numbers of active users for QQ mail, Qzone, Tencent Weibo, and QQ news were 274 million, 626 million, 220 million, and 150 million, respectively. Tencent was founded in November of 1998. In April 2000, the IDG and PCCW invested a total of $2.2 million dollars in the company. Tencent was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK) on June 16, 2004. Baidu, Alibaba, and Netease are Tencent's major competitors.

Tencent

Adams Street Partners is a global private market investment management firm that offers comprehensive solutions for its investors. As one of the independent, employee-owned firms, Adams Street has established a reputation for strong performance, an extensive knowledge base, and a disciplined investment approach that values quality over quantity. For more than 45 years, Adams Street has gained the experience to successfully manage through some of the most challenging investment cycles. The collective knowledge of the Adams Street team works collaboratively to leverage the global resources of the Firm in navigating the complexities of private markets. Its mission as a premier private markets investment manager is to provide world-class investment performance and maintain the confidence of our investors through our deep understanding of the global private marketplace and deliver exemplary client service.

Adams Street Partners

ClassDojo

ClassDojo is a school communication platform that teachers, students, and families use to build close-knit communities. It connects teachers with students and parents to build amazing classroom communities and instantly share photos, videos, and announcements on Class Story, or privately message with any parent. It aims to bring communities together and give kids a learning experience they love. ClassDojo was founded in 2011 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Launched in 2011, ClassDojo is a communication app and website that connects teachers, students, and families through features such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day (‘Class Story’) and messaging that is translatable into several languages. Teachers can also note feedback on students' skills and create a portfolio for students so that families stay updated on school activities. Other features include School Story, where school administrators and teachers can share school-related content with parents, and ‘Student Stories’, a tool for students to manage their unique portfolios, interact with classmates, and share their experiences with their parents. In 2018, the company released its first paid product, 'ClassDojo Beyond School', an optional subscription service for families that offers an at-home learning bundle for children. As of January 2021, the platform reported 51 million users across 180 countries.

Remote learning is driving an education technology revolution.

EdTech: K-12

How does ClassDojo make money?

Launched in 2011, ClassDojo is a communication app and website that connects teachers, students, and families through features such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day (‘Class Story’) and messaging that is translatable into several languages. Teachers can also note feedback on students' skills and create a portfolio for students so that families stay updated on school activities. Other features include School Story, where school administrators and teachers can share school-related content with parents, and ‘Student Stories’, a tool for students to manage their unique portfolios, interact with classmates, and share their experiences with their parents. In 2018, the company released its first paid product, 'ClassDojo Beyond School', an optional subscription service for families that offers an at-home learning bundle for children. As of January 2021, the platform reported 51 million users across 180 countries.Funding and financialsIn July 2022, the company announced that it raised <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11779">USD 125 million in a Series D funding </a>round in fall 2021 led by Tencent. It used the funds to build a virtual world for the development of creative, collaborative, and sportsmanship skills for K-12 students.

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.
 
</div>

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. 
 
 
 
</div>

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.

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

Uses AI/ML to create personalized learning plans, adaptive learning platforms, and intelligent tutoring systems

ClassDojo

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