brightwheel is a software company tailored for preschools, childcare providers, camps, and afterschool programs. brightwheel recently raised $21 million in a Series B round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
Omidyar Network participated in this round along with existing investors such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Eniac Ventures, GGV Capital, Golden Venture Partners, and Lowercase Capital. With this round of funding, Brightwheel plans to accelerate product development and expand its team.
“We’re proud that brightwheel has become the most trusted platform in early education,” said brightwheel founder and CEO Dave Vasen in a statement. “We hear amazing stories every day from parents, teachers, and small business owners about how brightwheel makes their day better. Bessemer is the perfect partner to quickly grow our team and to reach even more schools and families.”
Currently, parents spend more than $50 billion per year on pre-kindergarten education and there are more than 800,000 operators in just the US alone. But there aren’t too many companies that are focused on building technological solutions for that market.
“brightwheel has become the gold standard in the early education industry – serving hundreds of thousands of teachers and parents every day,” added Bessemer Venture Partners partner Charles Birnbaum. “brightwheel saves time for teachers and connects parents to their child’s development in a way that was not possible before. We could not be more excited to join Dave and the fantastic brightwheel team on their journey to improve the quality of care for early childhood centers around the world.”
Some of the features that brightwheel provides include Classroom Time Saver, Parent Engagement, and Robust Business Solution.
Classroom Time Saver allows teachers to easily track attendance, share videos, set up learning observations, and review insights about early childhood development.
Parent Engagement offers mobile messaging and real-time updates throughout the day. This way, parents are able to better engage in their child’s development and continue to provide learning tools while at home.
And Robust Business Solutions helps manage the enrollment, staffing, licensing compliance, and tuition collection in one place. So far, brightwheel delivered over $300 million in tuition to small business owners across America.
