Sierra Ventures is a Bay Area-based early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on Next Generation Enterprise and Emerging Technologies. With over three decades of experience and over $2 billion of assets under management, Sierra has created a vast network of successful entrepreneurs, Global 1000 CXOs, operational executives, and deep domain experts, providing a platform for entrepreneurs around the world. Sierra Ventures primarily invests in Seed and Series A rounds, with a preference to lead investment rounds and reserve capital for follow on rounds. Investment sectors include artificial intelligence/machine learning, big data, cloud, fintech, health tech, IoT/infrastructure, marketplaces, SaaS & enterprise apps, security, and emerging technologies such as 5G, devices, blockchain, robotics, and virtual reality / augmented reality. Sierra Ventures typically makes initial investments between $500,000 and $7 million on average and invests between $500,000 and $15 million over the life of an investment. The firm has invested in leading companies such as Intuit, Invensense, Greenplum, MakeMyTrip, OnLink, Teradata, StrataCom, Sourcefire, Treasure Data, and more. Sierra Ventures was founded in 1982 and is based in San Mateo, California.

Sierra Ventures

AME Cloud Ventures focuses on seed to later stage companies building infrastructure and value chains around data. It specializes in technology-heavy companies gathering or creating unique data at every stage of the data stack — from infrastructure all the way to applications, mobile, and sensors.  It strives to find, fund, and support true entrepreneurs. The firm provides a unique and genuine set of resources to our founding teams, from strong operational and business experience to networks of amazing mentors and international partners, particularly in China. AME Cloud Ventures is the venture fund led by Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!

AME Cloud Ventures

January Ventures is a VC fund focused on angel/pre-seed in the US & Europe. We are replacing the friends & family round and re-writing the networks in venture. We invest early and opens doors for the visionary founders of the future. We believe the founders of the next decade will look fundamentally different: more female, more diverse and more distributed. Our firm is built on the principles of transparency and access, and we back founders based on their tenacity and ambition, not their pedigrees or who they know.  January Ventures was founded in 2018 and is based in Boston, MA and London, UK.

January Ventures

SeedFolio is a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies with a high potential of profitable impact in life sciences and resource efficiency.

SeedFolio

Roble Ventures invests exclusively in entrepreneurs who are building impactful, cutting-edge human enablement technologies — all while prioritizing high returns and mutually beneficial partnerships. We are an early-stage venture capital fund investing $200k-$2M. We have a proven playbook that has helped entrepreneurs generate over $8B in market value by following a mission-driven approach that enables equitable human progress.

Roble Ventures

Unshackled Ventures is the only early-stage venture capital fund that enables unrecognized and excluded immigrant founders to start companies in the U.S. Since its founding in 2014, Unshackled has proven its thesis that investing and supporting this population drives strong investment returns across key industries, including American infrastructure, generative AI, healthcare, space, and enterprise SaaS. To date, the firm has invested in 80 companies and over 200 entrepreneurs.

Unshackled Ventures

Inspirit

Inspirit is a virtual reality tool for science and STEM education. The company's virtual labs, simulations, and virtual reality are being used to transform science courses all over the world. They provide educational institutions with access to a next-generation learning platform that includes a large library of immersive labs and simulations that are available on a variety of desktop/laptop and VR platforms. Its platform includes tools for classroom management, custom assessment integrations, group or networked lab sessions, and curriculum alignment options. Inspirit was launched in 2019 and is based in Palo Alto, California.

<div><p>Inspirit is an immersive technology company founded in 2019 by two Georgia Institute of Technology graduates, Amrutha Vasan (COO) and Aditya Vishwanath (CEO). The Inspirit platform uses virtual labs, simulations, and VR to boost learning and critical skill development. The company aims to provide a hands-on interactive learning experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.</p></div>

Remote learning is driving an education technology revolution.

EdTech: K-12

<div>
  <p>
    Inspirit is an immersive technology company founded in 2019 by two Georgia Institute of Technology graduates, Amrutha Vasan (COO) and Aditya Vishwanath (CEO). The Inspirit platform uses virtual labs, simulations, and VR to boost learning and critical skill development. The company aims to provide a hands-on interactive learning experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company caters to K-12 and higher education, partnering with schools and institutions. The platform established a waitlist in September 2020, and 50,000 people signed up for admission to the private beta before the platform was formally released out of beta in January 2021.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    In January 2021, Inspirit raised USD 3 million in funding to prepare the platform for public launch later this year by working with teachers and testing the product internally. This is the company’s second funding round, after raising USD 300,000 in a pre-seed round in 2019.
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
</div>


BookNook

<div>
  <p>
    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. 
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Story2

<div>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
</div>


Vooks

<div>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
</div>


Xeropan

<div>
  <p>
    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.  
  </p>
  <p>
    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">
      <u>TutorMe,</u>
    </a>
     Zovio’s tutoring services business, for USD 55 million in cash to strengthen its product offering. 
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    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. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


GoGuardian

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

Businesses delivering curriculum-based learning, particularly relating to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to educational institutions and individual students.

Inspirit

EdTech: K-12

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