edtech
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Discovery Education puts curiosity on the lesson plan
A video can catch a child’s attention. Discovery Education has spent two decades building the lessons, practice and teacher support that give that attention somewhere to go.
Examity put the exam room online
A webcam could move an exam out of the testing center. Examity built a business around the harder question: who would trust the result?
Chegg has a new homework assignment: get you hired.
Chegg built a business around the stuck student. After AI disrupted paid homework help, it is betting that the harder problem comes after graduation.
ClassDojo made the classroom a conversation
A little green monster helped teachers bring parents into the school day. The business grew by keeping that connection free - and finding things families would pay for at home.
GoGuardian and the classroom with a thousand tabs
Schools put the internet on every desk. GoGuardian built a business helping adults manage what happened next - from wandering attention to signs of distress.
Magic Software Inc. makes the textbook travel
A digital textbook has a surprisingly long journey to the classroom. Behind MagicBox, Magic Software Inc. handles the rights, rosters, formats and connections that help it arrive.
Preply bets on the person across the screen
A language lesson is easy to buy. The habit of speaking is harder. Preply has built a global marketplace around the tutor who gets you to come back.
Top Hat found the classroom’s missing reply.
A lecture can reach hundreds of students and still miss what they understand. Top Hat built a business around getting an answer back.
Brainly has the answer. Now comes the hard part.
A Polish homework community grew by helping students get unstuck. Its AI chapter asks a harder question: can getting an answer become the beginning of learning?
LingoAce Learned to Hold a Child’s Attention
A father watched his son lose his Chinese. The company he built around that problem now wants a bigger place in the family timetable.
Headway Inc sells the spare fifteen minutes
A book-summary app became a five-brand learning business by fitting education into the gaps of daily life. Behind the friendly lessons sits a serious machinery of experiments, subscriptions and distribution.
Hujiang built the audience. Then came the bill.
A free language-learning community became a sprawling education business. Hujiang’s story shows how far a useful habit can travel - and why an audience is only the beginning.
Noon figured out who was missing from online school. Your friends.
A Saudi test-prep website discovered that students wanted company as much as content. Now Noon is taking that idea off the phone and into classrooms.
Coderhouse puts the classroom back online
A Buenos Aires school took its classrooms online before the pandemic. Its bet was simple: people learn better when someone expects them to show up.
Ruangguru made the classroom bigger
A tutor marketplace became a lesson library, a network of learning centers and an academic game show. Ruangguru’s story turns on a stubborn question: how much of a good teacher can you put on a screen?
Nex Cubed bets on the founders venture capital keeps missing
A free HBCU startup program exposed an expensive omission: promising founders still needed money. Nex Cubed answered with a venture fund, $120,000 initial investments and advisors paid to get their hands dirty.
iHUB Nairobi: The business of making luck
A foosball table could introduce two founders. Keeping the doors open required a business model. Inside the Nairobi hub that learned to put a price, a partner and a pilot behind a promising idea.
Simplilearn’s expensive lesson in doing less
A classroom shutdown once cost Simplilearn 75% of its revenue. Its subsequent history makes a useful case for knowing which customers you can actually serve.
ExecOnline puts business school to work
A prestigious lecture is a pleasant afternoon. ExecOnline wants the assignment that follows to solve a problem on your desk - and give your employer a reason to pay for the next one.
Merlyn Mind gives teachers the room back
An AI assistant that changes slides, finds answers and lets teachers keep moving. Merlyn Mind’s wager is that classroom technology should follow the teacher around.
Acadeum turns another college’s empty seat into your next credit
A missing class can delay a degree. Acadeum lets colleges borrow academic capacity from one another - with the credit approved before the student takes a seat.
Istation made reading a game. Now it is learning to listen.
The Dallas education company built a business around animated lessons and monthly assessments. Its merger with Amira puts a new question at the center: what can a computer hear that a click cannot tell you?
Enflux found the student hidden in the spreadsheet
Health professions schools collect mountains of evidence. Enflux connects the pieces, so faculty can spot trouble sooner and spend less time preparing to help.
APDS sells education. The prisoner pays nothing.
Now called Orijin, APDS puts secure learning tablets inside correctional facilities and sends the bill to institutions. Its next challenge is getting the lesson to survive the journey home.
Aceable found a business in the lessons nobody wanted
A robot, a rejected pitch, and a very human desire to get on with life. How Aceable turned required education into a business spanning four kinds of licenses.
Nearpod makes the quiet classroom talk
A raised hand tells a teacher who wants to answer. Nearpod helps reveal what the rest of the room understands - and built a business by making that difference useful.
Parchment turned the transcript into a ticket out
A school record can travel in seconds and still leave its owner going nowhere. Parchment by Instructure is building a business around the distance between delivering proof and making it count.
Seesaw Learning gives the answer a voice
A correct answer tells you where a child landed. Seesaw lets teachers and families hear how they got there - and sells schools the tools to turn that evidence into instruction.
STS Education and the $15 that gets a Chromebook ready for class
A school can buy a computer in minutes. Making thousands of them useful takes rather longer. STS Education has built its business around the work between the purchase order and the first lesson.
Edpuzzle made the pause button a teaching tool
A teacher could find a video. Knowing what students understood was another matter. Edpuzzle built a business in the space between pressing play and asking a better question.