k12
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The Company Turning Dusty Trophy Cases Into Touchscreens
VitalSigns spent two decades building commercial signage. In 2017 it pointed that machinery at a problem every school shares: too many plaques, not enough wall.
Toddle - Your Teaching Partner
Toddle is an AI-powered, teacher-built teaching and learning platform for K-12 schools that unifies curriculum planning, assessments, gradebook, student portfolios, progress reports, family communication and class operations in one system. Founded in 2019 by educators, it is officially licensed by the International Baccalaureate and is used by 2,000+ schools across 100+ countries, with a mission to save teachers time and amplify their impact.
Zenius
Zenius was Indonesia's pioneering education-technology company, founded in 2004 as a Jakarta tutoring center and reborn in 2010 as one of the country's first video-based learning platforms. Built around founder Sabda PS's belief that education should teach fundamental skills and critical thinking rather than rote memorization, Zenius grew into a digital learning ecosystem with a library of more than 100,000 video lessons, a large UTBK question bank, AI-powered tools like ZenCore and ZenBot, and live classes. After acquiring legacy tutoring brand Primagama in 2022 to push into hybrid learning, the company struggled with the post-pandemic funding downturn and suspended operations in January 2024 after roughly 20 years.
Darsel
Darsel is an education-technology nonprofit that teaches K-12 math over the messaging apps students already have. Instead of an app or a laptop, students practice curriculum-aligned questions through SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, and an AI-powered chatbot delivers hints, explanations, and personalized practice while auto-grading homework and reporting progress to teachers. Founded by Stanford MBA and MIT alum Abdulhamid Haidar during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Darsel has grown from a spring-break prototype to a platform used across Jordan, India, and Nigeria, reaching hundreds of thousands of students who have answered hundreds of millions of math questions.
Informed K12
Informed K12 is a workflow automation and digital forms platform built specifically for the operational complexity of K-12 school districts. It replaces paper and PDF forms with online workflows that route automatically through the real approval chains districts already use - across finance, HR, student services, and IT - capturing e-signatures and a time-stamped audit trail without replacing the ERP, HRIS, or SIS a district already runs. Founded in 2012 by two Stanford Graduate School of Education classmates, the company (formerly Chalk Schools) serves hundreds of districts and employs roughly 70-75 people.
Cartwheel
Cartwheel is a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that delivers evidence-based mental health care to K-12 students through their schools. Working as a telehealth partner to school districts, it provides rapid-access individual therapy, group therapy, psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and family and parent guidance, with most care covered by insurance. By 2026 it had grown to roughly 350 school districts across 15 states, positioning itself as the largest school-based mental health telehealth provider in the United States.
Everest Education
Everest Education (E2) is a Ho Chi Minh City-based edtech company founded in 2011 that prepares Vietnamese students from Grade 1 to Grade 12 for international academic environments. Combining its own classroom-management software with in-person learning centers, it offers Math and English enrichment, test preparation, private tutoring, and college-admissions consulting through a blended-learning model. The company has recorded more than 12,000 enrollments and raised roughly $5.4M, including a $4M Series B led by Hendale Capital.
Basic American Foods
Basic American Foods is a family-owned food production company founded in 1933 and headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. It is the world's largest producer of dehydrated potato products, best known for Potato Pearls premium mashed potatoes, Golden Grill hash browns, and Santiago refried beans. The company serves foodservice operators, retail consumer brands, and food manufacturers through its ingredients business, sourcing potatoes from prime growing regions in Idaho and Washington.
Quizlet
Quizlet is an American education technology company that built the world's most-used flashcard app and is now retooling itself as an AI-powered study coach. Founded in 2005 by a 15-year-old high schooler studying for a French final, it has grown into a platform used by tens of millions of students each month across more than 130 countries.
Breathe For Change
Breathe For Change is a San Francisco-based education company transforming schools from the inside out by training educators in mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and yoga. Founded in 2015 by Dr. Ilana Nankin and Michael Fenchel, the company has certified over 20,000 educators across all 50 states, creating ripple effects that reach more than 20 million students. Through a suite of programs including a fully accredited Master's degree (with William Jewell College), a Human Intelligence Certification, and the original 200-hour wellness and yoga teacher training, Breathe For Change makes the case that teacher well-being isn't a perk - it's the foundation of student success.