- Class Technologies — the company behind Class, a software that integrates teaching and learning tools with Zoom — announced it has raised $30.75 million in a Series A investment round
Class Technologies — the company behind Class, a software that integrates teaching and learning tools with Zoom — announced it has raised $30.75 million in a Series A investment round co-led by Insight Partners and Owl Ventures with continued support from all previous investors. And this financing comes on the heels of the company’s launch and a $16 million round of seed financing announced during the third quarter of 2020, bringing the total funding raised to date to $46 million.
The company also announced it also simplified its corporate name from ClassEDU to Class Technologies and can now be found at class.com. The new name reinforces the company’s focus on the classroom experience and follows the strong market demand for its product.
The company plans to use the funding to ramp up and meet the demand for the over 6,000 colleges, universities, K-12 schools, and corporate training programs in the U.S. and overseas who have indicated an interest in purchasing Class; launch Class for Mac, Windows, Chromebook, iPad, and Android Tablet platforms; and fulfill over 100 signed contracts with clients who have purchased beta or pre-launch access to Class.
Investors that participated in the funding include Reach Capital, Catalysis Capital Management, and Diligent Software. And all prior seed investors participated in the Series A investment, including Santi Subotovsky (General Partner at Emergence Capital), Jim Scheinman (Founding Managing Partner of Maven Partners), Bill Tai (an investor with 30 years of venture capital experience), Deborah Quazzo (Partner at GSV Ventures), Steve Case (co-founder of AOL, and Chairman and CEO of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund), Fred Schaufeld (co-founder and Managing Director of SWaN & Legend Venture Partners), and Slow Ventures.
KEY QUOTES:
“Since our beta launch, there has been heavy demand for Class, which is built on Zoom, from the K-12, Higher Education, and corporate training markets both in the U.S. and overseas. We want to get Class to as many students, teachers, and schools as possible, and as quickly as possible. As a father of three children, I’ve witnessed the challenges and opportunities education has faced with millions of students and teachers suddenly switching from in-person to online education. Education has changed forever, and we’re committed to empowering instructors to improve engagement for virtual and hybrid learning.”
— Michael Chasen, education software pioneer and Class co-founder and CEO
“Recent events have sped up the role of technology in education by five to ten years. We believe hybrid and virtual learning will grow and improve on an accelerating flywheel far into the future. Class makes virtual experiences feel like a real classroom.”
— Jeff Lieberman, Managing Director at Insight Partners
“As hybrid and virtual learning become mainstream, educators need software built for mass consumer adoption that still works and feels like a classroom. Class is one of the first, and most important software solutions built on top of the Zoom platform that has become the go to for schools and universities. Given the massive demand for Class from launch, we see a clear opportunity to fund the work needed to launch high-quality software to radically transform and improve the online education experience.”
— Ian Chiu, Managing Director at Owl Ventures
