NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, educational
technology innovator Knewton announces completion of a $33 million round of funding, led by Founders
Fund and Pearson, the world's leading learning company. Returning
investors include Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and
FirstMark Capital.
Knewton's new financing will accelerate expansion of the
company's award-winning Adaptive Learning Platform™, which
transforms third-party educational content by personalizing it to
each individual student.
Knewton's leading technology can dynamically remix any
publisher's or school's educational materials to match each
student's strengths, weaknesses, and unique learning style.
Optimizing the intersection between personal proficiencies and
course requirements, the platform tailors material to each
student's concept-level needs in real time, delivering the most
relevant content in the most effective medium. Ultimately,
the Adaptive Learning Platform™ maximizes student learning and
retention, supercharging homework so that teachers see
better-prepared students in class.
"Knewton is poised to become a global lynchpin in online
education and, more importantly, to improve education for
everyone," said Luke Nosek, Managing
Partner of Founders Fund. "We couldn't be more excited about our
investment."
In the past year, Knewton was selected as a Technology Pioneer
by the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland. Knewton also launched two first-year college
math courses – College Mathematics and College
Algebra – plus a self-paced Math Readiness for College™
course. To date, Knewton has partnered with some of the largest
educational institutions in the United
States, including Arizona State
University (ASU), Penn State
University (PSU), the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Mount
St. Mary's University, Washington
State University (WSU), and Education Management Corporation
(EDMC).
With this new capital, Knewton will bring its product to grades
K-12, and partner with leading education publishers, universities
and school districts. The company will continue to hire
aggressively, doubling its current team of 70 employees over the
next 18-24 months, with a focus on software engineers and data
scientists. In addition, Knewton will launch its open platform,
which will make its adaptive learning technology available to any
third party.
"There's a revolution brewing in education," said Jose Ferreira, the company's founder and CEO.
"Between increased broadband and the rise of tablet computing, many
more students are accessing their homework and even their classes
online. In so doing they are producing unfathomable quantities of
data. As the world leader in adaptive learning, Knewton can capture
these data to give students a unique lifetime learning profile that
dramatically improves their educational experience."
"The demand for Knewton's Adaptive Learning Platform™ is high as
it has grown past proof-of-concept and is now on the cusp of being
widely used," said David Liu,
Knewton COO. "Right now, at schools like ASU, thousands of students
are enjoying courses powered by our platform that automatically
skip boring concepts students have mastered, and instead provide
perfectly targeted lessons that have been optimized for media
format and engagement. Initial results have been overwhelmingly
positive, with students reporting that they are engaged with
learning from personalized content, rather than all being forced
through the same material."
About Knewton
Knewton has developed the world's first Adaptive Learning
Platform™, which customizes educational content to create a
uniquely personalized learning experience for every student.
Knewton's patent-pending algorithms currently power its Math
Readiness for College™, Test Prep courses, and Knewton is
continuing to partner with universities, publishers and other
educational organizations to make personalized learning available
to everyone worldwide. Knewton was founded in 2008 by Jose Ferreira, a former executive at Kaplan,
with Series A, B, and C funding from Accel Partners, Bessemer
Venture Partners, First Round Capital, First Mark Capital, and
prominent angel investors. For more information, visit
www.knewton.com.
About Founders Fund
Founders Fund provides capital to transformational businesses
run by world-class entrepreneurs. Companies the firm has backed
include Facebook (managing partner Peter
Thiel was Facebook's first outside backer), SpaceX, Palantir
Technologies, ZocDoc, and Spotify. The firm, which pursues a
founder-friendly investment strategy, is overseen by four managing
partners, all of whom have founded companies worth more than
$1 billion: Peter Thiel (PayPal); Ken Howery (PayPal); Luke Nosek (PayPal); and Sean Parker (Napster; Plaxo, Causes; founding
president, Facebook).
About Pearson
Pearson, the world's leading learning company, has global reach
and market-leading businesses in education, business information
and consumer publishing (NYSE: PSO). The company provides
innovative print and digital education materials, including
personalized learning programs such as MyLab and Mastering;
educational services including custom publishing; and
content-independent platforms including the EQUELLA digital
repository and Pearson LearningStudio for online learning
programs.
SOURCE Knewton