| PORTFOLIO NEWS
June 2022
CareAcademy raises a $20m strategic investment
CareAcademy announced a $20 million strategic investment round! The round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management among a handful of other funds. Congratulations to CareAcademy!
Education Modified receives EdTech Digest CoolTool award
Education Modified is an EdTech Digest CoolTool Winner! The company was given the award in the category for Special Needs Assistive Technology.
May 2022
Learn from Unruly Studio about strategies to boost teacher morale
Unruly Studio surveyed principles across the US for the most effective strategies to boost teacher morale. The results of the study were published in THE Journal.
Riff Analytics recognized by CODiE for Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in Ed Tech
Riff Analytics was announced as a finalist in the CODiE Awards for the Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in Ed Tech! This is an award that recognizes companies with the best use of AI to help student success and outcomes.
April 2022
Peerceptiv recognized by CODiE for Best Student Learning Capacity Building
Peerceptiv was announced as a finalist in the CODiE Awards for the Best Student Learning Capacity-Building Solution category. The finalists represent the companies with a significant impact through a service or product in their sector.
Podcast with Beth Porter about new learning analytics
Beth Porter of Esme Learning Solutions and Riff Analytics was featured on the Edtech Insiders podcast. They joined Alex Sarlin and discussed “New Learning Analytics” and its significance for the Edtech industry.
March 2022
Michele Courton Brown wins 2022 Woman of the year from Boys & Girls Club, Boston
Quality Interactions executive board member Michele Courton Brown was awarded the 2022 Woman of the Year from Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston’s Yawkey Club of Roxbury!
Esme Learning Solutions raises $15M from Hercules Capital
Esme Learning Solutions announced up to $15 million of venture financing from Hercules Capital, Inc. It has now received a total of $38.5M in investments.
March 2021
MindPrint Learning Study Results
MindPrint Learning and CAST, Inc. are excited to announce the results of their NSF Phase I study which demonstrate strong potential to improve middle school math outcomes at scale.
Teachers Connect Acquired by Public Consulting Group
Public Consulting Group LLC announced it has purchased TeachersConnect. The educator social network has helped tens of thousands of teachers become the educators they aspired to be when they chose to teach.
Capti Wins Phase 1 Grant
Capti (Charmtech Labs LLC) IES at the Department of Education was awarded a $200,000 Phase I grant. The Award will enable Capti to further develop its Capti Assess product which helps teachers evaluate foundational reading skills.
Peerceptiv Awarded SBIR Grant
Peerceptiv was awarded a Phase I SBIR grant to develop peer-scored performance assessments. These assessments will include NGSS aligned tasks with personalized learning functionality based on student performance.
Education Modified’s Case Study
Read Education Modified’s new case study that highlights how 3 public school districts are providing general educators with the technology tools and data needed to ensure quality instruction for students with special needs.
Unruly Studios Wins Major Award
Unruly Studios has been recognized in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards for 2021! They received an honorable mention for helping inspire better and more equitable learning.
Publication from Beth Porter
Congratulations to Beth Porter and friends from Riff Analytics on their recent publication in The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy discussing enablement tools and real-time.
GSV Elite 200 Semifinalists
Some of our portfolio companies will be competing for $1M in cash & credits at the ASU+GSV Summit LIVE in San Diego this August. Congrats to Schola, Incribe, Riipen, Chalk Talk, Unruly Studios and Immersed Games.
Exciting News about Inscribe
Inscribe has multiple recent company updates including winning a Colorado Advanced Industries grant and being a finalist for the EdTech Awards from EdTech digest and semifinalist for the 2021 GSV Elite 200. Go Inscribe!
April 2021
Jean Hammond Discusses Angel Investing
Jean Hammond, General Partner at LearnLaunch Accelerator, shares advice and resources for women in the angel investing space and Boston innovation ecosystem
Unruly Splats piloted in Hawaii
The initiative from Unruly Studios comes as state legislators are pushing for computer science in younger grades, building on their mandate that Hawaii’s public high schools offer such courses.
CareAcademy launches CAREer Path Initiative
The partnership aims to open new doors for direct care workers to advance their careers by offering new educational pathways enabled via CareAcademy’s online training platform.
February/March 2021
Helen Adeosun in Fortune’s 40 under 40
The CEO and Founder of digital training platform CareAcademy, Helen Adeosun, was recognized in Fortune’s 40 under 40 in the Healthcare sector.
IndigoPathway.com is now LIVE
Indigo Education Company just released a new website, IndigoPathway.com. They provide a free online resource for job-seeking Americans, students, and workforce organizations.
Riipen’s New Internship Program
The Level-Up program launched by Riipen is now live and ready to help connect post-secondary students with employers looking to offer internships. It features flexible remote projects and a customizable project focus.
Pre-Order Monica Brady-Myerov’s Book
Monica is the author of a new book, Listen Wise: Teach Students to be Better Listeners and founder of an education tech start-up Listenwise.
Spinndle competes in the Battle of the Pitch Decks
Spinddle participates in the Vancouver Battle of the Pitch Decks with a virtual audience and panel of judges.
January 2021
A Superintendent’s Experience with Mindprint Learning
Mindprint Learning is partnering with schools to reduce implicit bias and improve equitable outcomes for all learners.
Unruly Educator Awards Results are in!
850 people voted for 26 nominees in Unruly Studios’ yearly Unruly Educator Awards! Check out the educators who won.
CareAcademy Now Offers Nursing Continuing Education
CareAcademy’s mobile-friendly and on-demand training on its platform further improves accessibility for health care workers during this crisis and beyond.
Riff Analytics Joins the WGULabs Program
Riff Analytics builds tools that use AI to measure how teams interact during video calls while providing personalized feedback for improving communication.
Indigo Announced A New Career Search Platform, IndigoPathway
Indigo Education Company just released IndigoPathway.com, a free online resource for job-seeking Americans, students, and workforce organizations across the country.
November 2020
Unruly Studios Featured in MassTLC
Unruly Studios was included in the The Mass Technology Leadership Council’s Tech Top 50 for their Covid-19 response.
Indigo Releases Beta Product
IndigoPathway is an all-in-one 10-minute, DISC-based personality assessment. It provides descriptions of personal strengths, motivators, behaviors, and communication styles. Based on results, you’ll get a list of curated career matches.
Peerceptiv Partners with WGU Labs
Peerceptiv partnership allows advanced research on collaborative peer review. WGU Labs will leverage its research and market development to measure Peerceptiv’s impact on student learning outcomes and influence on student success.
CourseStorm Nominated for Most Exciting Startup
CourseStorm has been nominated for being the most exciting startup in the Bangor Region.
Immersed Games Offers STEM Gaming MicroGrants
Through funding from Overdeck Family Foundation, Immersed Games is able to offer STEM Gaming MicroGrants with 5,000 free student licenses available.
Unruly Studios Featured in Forbes
Bryanne Leeming, founder and CEO of Unruly Studios, is featured in Forbes Magazine for her work in STEM education
InScribe Selected for New U VP Cohort
InScribe Education was selected to join the inaugural cohort of the New University Venture Partners ‘Bridge to Success’ Program.
October 2020
Unruly Studios Rise During Pandemic
Unruly Studios was featured in a Boston Globe article for their success and business growth during the pandemic.
Mindprint Selected as Finalist
Mindprint was selected as the Top 10 out of 180 finalist startups by top venture capitalists across the globe in the GSV Cup.
Listenwise Partners with Audible
Listenwise and Audible partner on several school pilots to test out long-form and short-form audio learning. This will allow Listenwise to learn more about how to improve listening comprehension and literacy.
Thimble.io selected as Finalist
Out of 220 applications, Thimble.io was chosen among 5 others for the More Equity Pitch Competition hosted by Forbes and Harlem Capital
Mindprint Received NSF Grant
Mindprint was awarded an NSF grant as part of the COVID-19 specific cohort.
Orbit wins #SCWomenInTech 2020
Over 280 women-led businesses applied for the program, from which Orbit and 6 others were declared winners and won seed grants.
September 2020
CareAcademy CEO named Fortune 40 Under 40
CareAcademy’s Founder and CEO, Helen Adeosun, is included in this list for her work in health care trainings and the coursework.
Capti and ETS Launch ReadReady™ Assessment
Capti is the official distributor of the ReadReady assessment – an identifier of areas where readers are struggling and provider of detailed info to help teachers target the areas.
hihilulu Launches Atelier
Atelier is a Chinese immersion learning platform for all ages, specifically early education brands (Montessoris & Montessori-alike) promoting multilingual early education.
CourseStorm Releases Article
CourseStorm’s latest article “Getting Started with SMS: Marketing Your Educational Program via Text Messages” is available now.
Speak Agent Partners with Digital Promise
Speak Agent launched the ELL Digital Strategies Workspace. It compiles digital resources such as articles, professional learning videos, tools, examples, research citations, and cross-cutting strategies.
Mindprint Partners with NWEA
Mindprint and NWEA have partnered together to offer individualized learning plans to support students for remote and in-person learning to select pilot sites.
August 2020
Solfeg.io Selected as Top 50 EdTech Company in the Baltics
Solfeg.io is included in the “Nordic-Baltic EdTech 50” organized by HolonIQ. They were selected out of 700+ organizations from the region.
Skillist Joins Opportunity@Work
Opportunity@Work acquires Skillist’s technology and IP, plus co-founders Ananth and Caroline join the team as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence
Riff Analytics Featured in Forbes
Riff’s platform is featured in a “Six Edtech Businesses Leading the Way During Lockdown” article. Forbes recognizes their work that powers Esme Learning’s tech.
hihilulu Receives Grant
hihilulu has received an Innov’Up Experiment Grant by the French government for its innovation within B2B markets.
Peerceptiv Published in Canvas Blog
Peerceptiv was published on the Instructure (Canvas) blog discussing best practices and the impact of active learning in the virtual classroom.
Mindprint Receives Grant
Mindprint was awarded a NSF Phase I grant to study how Mindprint profiles and strategies improve middle school math outcomes.
Empow Gets Rave Reviews
Empow launched new virtual STEM learning programs. Their coding, digital arts, robotics, Minecraft, and video game design have been getting rave reviews from families
July 2020
Mindprint Partners with NWEA
Mindprint partnered with NWEA to integrate their district-wide Growth Learning Plan.
Spinndle Reports Strong Interest
Spinndle’s product allows teachers to observe and measure progress on project-based learning even in grades 3-6. The company webinars are leading to early sales.
Education Modified Partners with DC Special-Ed Co-op
Education Modified’s platform improves virtual special education in over 20 DC Charter Schools.
Entri Raises $3.1M of Funding
Funds were invested in two tranches – $1.7M and $1.4M. With new capital, Entri has seen 150% revenue growth and a 100% spike in user base.
Speak Agent Launches Product
Speak Agent’s new product is an affordable pre-built supplemental platform for ESL and STEM programs.
June 2020
Thimble Launches Design Academy for Kids
Thimble launched game design, robotics, and coding academy including project kits and live lessons.
Lanterne Rouge Partners With LXP
Lanterne Rouge becomes Learning Experience Partners coaching and mentoring partner.
BeeTools Selected for 2020 LATAM EdTech 100
BeeTools was chosen as one of the 100 most innovative 2020 EdTech companies across Latin America.
Entri Experiences Promising Growth During Lockdown
Entri’s revenue has continued to grow during the lockdown, with an 18% increase in revenue since April.
CareAcademy Closes $9.5 Million in Funding
CareAcademy closed an oversubscribed $9.5 million in Series A funding led by the Impact America Fund.
May 2020
Mindsets Learning Named 2020 CODiE Finalist
Mindsets Learning named 2020 CODiE finalist for Best Instructional Technology Solution.
Choosito Partners with UPenn
Choosito is collaborating with UPenn to build breakthrough technology for workforce upskilling.
TeachersConnect Hosting Upcoming Webinar
TeachersConnect is hosting a 5th webinar about “Passion Projects” on June 3rd.
Spinndle Runs Three Webinars For Teachers
Spinndle ran three webinars on topics like Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship for teachers.
April 2020
CourseStorm Creates Recovery Guide
CourseStorm has created the COVID-19 Recovery Guide for Education Programs.
Peerceptiv is now LTI 1.3/Advantage Certified
Peerceptiv has been certified at LTI 1.3/Advantage by IMS Global.
Mindprint Learning is Providing Weekly Webinars
Mindprint Learning is providing weekly Science of Learning webinars for Columbia Teachers College.
Unruly Studios launches COVID-19 Grant
Unruly Studios is starting a grant in response to COIVD-19 and is giving away $250,000 worth of Splats.
Indigo is a Finalist for Two Funds
Indigo is a finalist for both Chloe Capital’s May funding round and Colorado Women’s Impact Investing Giving Circle.
READ MORE HERE and HERE
Sutori Unlimited Providing Free Subscriptions
Sutori is providing Sutori Unlimited for free to schools in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
LearnLaunch Accelerator Announces Newest Cohort
LearnLaunch Accelerator Invests in Five Edtech Startups Catalyzing Digital Transformation in Education with Support from ECMC Foundation
March 2020
Authess Was Acquired by Elsevier/RELX
Authess was acquired by Elsevier/RELX to scale and expand nursing education solutions.
hihilulu Creates Home Chinese Curriculum Due to Coronavirus
Due to coronavirus hihilulu developed an at home Chinese curriculum so students can learn at home.
CourseStorm Announces COVID-19 Education Relief Fund
CourseStorm announces education relief fund to alleviate economic injury of impacted customers.
Quill provides resources for those impacted by COVID-19
In response to the coronavirus Quill announces an expansion of their resources for home education.
February 2020
Beagle Joins Techstars Air Force Accelerator
Beagle was accepted into the Air Force Accelerator class of 2020 powered by Techstars.
hihilulu Partners with First Montessori School
hihilulu started a partnership with its first Montessori school, Montessori du Val de Marne.
Listenwise Named MetaMetrics Inaugural Partner
Listenwise partners with MetaMetrics to help implement their new Lexile Framework for listening.
Indigo Completes Efficacy Study
Indigo created a study, with Blue Caps, which showcased the consistent success of their technology.
CourseStorm Partners with PatronManager
Now PatronManager users can register students for classes and workshops with CourseStorm.
Cue Career Hits 2 Million Total Views
Cue Career surpasses 2 million total views on their company Youtube channel.
January 2020
CueThink Announces Partnership with Origo
Schola raised $875,000 to continue to expand and improve its software.
Schola Receives Funding to Continue Expanding
CueThink and Origo are partnering to “make math social” and to strengthen grades 1-6 math skills.
Riipen Wins “Nurturing Employability” Award
Riipen received the “Nurturing Employability” Award at the Reimagine Education Conference in London, England.
Decemeber 2019
CourseStorm Wins 2019 Governor’s Award for Business
CourseStorm was selected for the 2019 Governor’s Award for business by Governor Janet Mills of Maine.
Riipen Raises New Round of Funding
Riipen raised 3.75 million dollars in funding. Investors include Arizona State University’s ScaleU accelerator.
November 2019
Unruly Studios wins MassTLC Award
Unruly Studios won MassTLC’s award for Digital Transformation in Education!
ChalkTalk Announces New Blog Series
ChalkTalk will be authoring 2 blog posts a month.
October 2019
CourseStorm Featured in National Article
CourseStorm was featured in HerMoney.com’s article on working remotely.
InScribe wins Chloe Capital & ECMC Pitch
We’re thrilled to announce that InScribe, won the LA Chloe Capital/ECMC Pitch!
CueCareer Featured for their Work with Associations
Featured in “Four ways associations can boost their industry’s future workforce” article by AssociationsNow.
September 2019
Skillist Named MIT SOLVE Finalist
Skillist was named a Global Finalist for MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge and will compete at MIT on November 21st.
August 2019
Entri hit 1 Million users
This month, Entri surpassed 1 Million users on Android devices alone! That doesn’t include any other activity or platform use.
Capti Voice selected as a semifinalist for 43North
43North’s judges have selected 129 semifinalists for 43North’s annual $5 million startup competition.
hihilulu’s Dedication to Education
In partnership with Millimages (the biggest French kids’ animation producer), hihilulu is participating in a charity mission to build schools in Burkina Faso.
July 2019
Skillist selected as MIT Inclusive Innovation finalist
Skillist, a skill-based identity-blind hiring platform that connects companies with entry-level talent, advances to the next stage of the challenge.
June 2019
Empow Studios & MIT Collaboration
Empow Studios is collaborating with MIT Media Lab Personal Robots group on a new AI + Ethics program for middle school students.
Mindsets introduces ‘Immersive Reader’ for schools and districts
Mindsets has adopted ‘Immersive Reader’ technology to provide students with special needs access to a suite of learning tools and translation support for English learners.
May 2019
Quill wins NBC Innovation Challenge
NBC featured Quill on NBC4 in a short segment.
April 2019
CourseStorm Expands Core Team with New Hires
CourseStorm increases the size of their team with additions to their product, marketing, and customer success teams. Read on
BlocksCAD Receives Phase 1 SBIR Funding
BlocksCAD has been selected for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.
March 2019
Unruly Announced as BostInno’s Finalist for Tech Madness 2019
Tech Madness Finalist list 2019 is created by nominating companies that embodies the complete range of Boston tech, in both industry and stage.
ChalkTalk Finds Scale and More Funders
Scaling an edtech company has been an ongoing lesson for ChalkTalk CEO Mohannad Arbaji. Now, two years later, he tells EdSurge he’s pursuing a Series A fundraise and grow his team from 17 full-time employees to about 50.
Listenwise Launches K-12 Podcast with EdSurge!
In this series we’ll hear directly from educators about important and sometimes challenging moments in their careers, and ultimately, what brings them joy in teaching. These are deeply personal stories that we hope will inspire you.
Capti Voice Awarded $225K SBIR Grant for Additional Development
Capti’s NSF grant will help add Personalized Text Simplification to an already extensive list of supports offered by the Capti Literacy & Learning Platform.
CapitalOne to Sponsor Choosito’s Watson AI XPRIZE Team
Choosito!’s work is aimed at addressing the problem of illiteracy among the 100 million underserved children in the world with the support of AI/ML technology.
February 2019
CourseStorm Raises $1.2M in Funding!
CourseStorm has received $1.2 million of venture capital funding. The investment will enable the high growth company to keep up its momentum and increase its headcount.
January 2019
EMPOW COACHED LEXINGTON ‘SPACE POTATOES’ EARN LEGO GOLD!
FIRST LEGO League, also known as FLL, is a global robotics program for children aged 9 to 14. The league was coached at the STEM education company Empow Studios.
FIU PARTNERS WITH Cognii TO IMPLEMENT AI IN ONLINE EDUCATION
Cognii Virtual Learning Assistant will provide AI-powered tutoring and assessments to FIU College of Business students in online courses
ETF INVESTS IN CareAcademy TO UPSKILL ADULTS FOR CAREERS IN CAREGIVING
ETF, the EdTech Center at World Education, and CareAcademy are conducting field tests to pilot their online course modules and validate new models of educating and certifying frontline home care workers for career advancement.
CourseStorm WINS ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD!
The Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce has selected CourseStorm as one of the recipients of their annual awards in 2019.
December 2018
CHOOSITO! RECEIVES IBM WATSON AI XPRIZE RUNNER-UP AWARD.
Choosito! Wins the highly competitive IBM Watson AI XPRISE Runner-Up Milestone Award and is now one of the two top contenders to win $3 Million Grand Prize on the TED2020 stage.
AUTHESS ANNOUNCES SKILLMETRIC CO-DEVELOPED with CAE.ORG
The Authess team is proud to introduce SkillMetric powered by Authess and co-developed with CAE.org.
Entri TRENDING in INDIA!
Entri app is one of the top trending apps in India now. The success of Entri is also reflected in the results of the 2018 LDC examination in India, as 22 of the 100 rank holders were Entri subscribers.
CURIO LEARNING WINS $100K at GirlBoss!
Ashley Lamb-Sinclair, 2016 Kentucky Teacher of the Year and founder & CEO of Curio Learning, won the Grand Prize of $100,000 in the Uber Pitch competition at the GirlBoss Rally in NYC, held from Nov. 16 and 17.
Sutori RACES TOWARDS 1M USERS & INTEGRATES WITH Clever
Sutori is pleased to announce that they have partnered with Clever, a space for educators to easily find edtech products and automate setup processes.
CAREACADEMY WINS MIT INCLUSIVE INNOVATION CHALLENGE
In its third annual Inclusive Innovation Challenge, MIT awarded $250k to CareAcademy.
Unruly SPLATS ARE NOW ON THE MARKET!
Unruly Splats are programmable floor tiles that pair with a tablet preloaded with tons of recess-style play games.
August 2018
CareAcademy SELECTED AS MIT INCLUSIVE INNOVATION CHALLENGE FINALIST!
CareAcademy provides online professional development to teach and upskill caregivers. We provide opportunities for millions workers to prepare for future of healthcare.
BOSTON STEM ENTHUSIAST WINS $25,000 IN SMALL BIZ SALUTE PITCH OFF!
Bryanne Leeming, founder and CEO of Unruly Studios, won $25,000 and an editorial feature in Inc. Magazine for her STEM-focused small business.
CHALKTALK LISTED AS TOP 25 EDTECH SOLUTION PROVIDERS OF 2018.
The featured companies include ChalkTalk which provides personalized ELA and Math education solution for high schools.
MINDSETS LEARNING NAMED BY MICROSOFT AS TOP BACK-TO-SCHOOL APP
Mindsets Learning team is excited and proud to be featured by Microsoft! Designed for teachers & students, Mindsets Learning makes bringing real-world inquiry into Classrooms easy.
May 2018
EDUCATION MODIFIED AWARDED IES/SBIR GRANT!
ED/IES SBIR provides funding to small business firms and partners for the research and development of commercially viable education technology products.
BEST OF CARE SELECTS CareAcademy AS A CAREGIVER TRAINING PROVIDER
CareAcademy has been selected by Best of Care to train its workforce on abuse and neglect, infection control, OSHA and HIPAA compliance, specialized care and interpersonal skills.
SUCCESS STORY: Deloitte DIGITAL DESIGN THINKING – Riipen EXPERIENCE AT A GLANCE
Have you ever had difficulty finding and engaging tech-savvy talent for your organization? Riipen Challenges can help: here’s how.
February 2018
FAST COMPANY SELECTS Quill.org AS ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES FOR 2018
Quill was chosen by a panel of three dozen Fast Company editors, reporters, and contributors who reviewed more than 1,500 nonprofit and for-profit companies.
QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP WITH UCONNECT!
Quinnipiac recently launched a partnership with uConnect, a platform that integrates academic and career resources into one student experience.
January 2018
Quill.org RECEIVES $1 MILLION DONATION FROM THE PINEAPPLE FUND!
In recognition of the potential for the technology to help educate tens of millions of students across the country, the Pineapple Fund has awarded Quill a $1 million donation to support its artificial intelligence research and development efforts.
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