- Labster — an award-winning producer of virtual laboratory simulations — announced it raised $60 million in Series C funding. These are the details.
Labster — an award-winning producer of virtual laboratory simulations — announced it raised $60 million in Series C funding. And the round was led by new investor Andreessen Horowitz, joined by existing investors GGV Capital, Owl Ventures, Balderton Capital, David Helgason (founder of Unity Technologies), Northzone, Swisscom Ventures, and EduCapital. This round brings Labster’s total capital raised to $100 million.
Labster’s core team of 200 employees supports over 2,000 universities and high-schools, tens of thousands of courses, and millions of students who use Labster. And the latest round of capital will enable Labster to focus on growing the size of its global team to serve students around the world.
Currently in over 70 countries, Labster has already put together an ambitious roadmap for expansion and is now hiring across all major teams such as engineering, product, sales, and customer success. And the company will establish operations in South America this spring in the next stage of its plan to serve educators and students around the world with virtual lab simulations for hybrid, remote, and in-person learning modalities.
Labster has been growing its core offerings to meet the needs of educators and students who are determined to continue learning without interruption due to the pandemic or the many other barriers to education. And they are exploring additional ways to extend their award-winning virtual lab platform to students of all backgrounds, including those who may not have laptops or broadband Internet service. In the future, some students may use mobile devices to access Labster’s high-quality virtual lab simulations.
Labster’s focus is continuing to be on supporting instructors as they empower their students to become the next generation of scientists to change the world. And Labster simulations have proven to be a complementary learning tool for in-person university and high school education and have also been an essential resource to many hybrid and online courses.
KEY QUOTES:
“One of the biggest questions we asked ourselves throughout 2020 was how we could help improve learning outcomes and dramatically increase the motivation of the many students forced to learn from home. This round of funding will allow us to accelerate our global expansion and development of new science courses so we can help millions more students.”
— Michael Bodekaer Jensen, Founder & CEO of Labster
“The pandemic has clearly shown that a lot of ed tech fails because it merely brings old teaching methods online, without tapping into the many technological possibilities that are leveraged for consumer apps and games. Students are bored and we’re losing out on the potential for so many future scientists,” said Bonde. “Labster’s game-based platform makes learning addictive. Our approach stimulates students’ natural curiosity and attains much higher learning outcomes. In the future, we will see new scientists, healthcare professionals, and science-literate adults who were first trained in a Labster simulation.”
— Mads Bonde, Founder and Chairman of Labster
“Labster recognizes that if you combine the best aspects of in-person instruction and a game-based platform, it’s a transformative learning experience for students. We are excited to support the Labster team, especially now, when teachers and students are especially in need of its engaging virtual labs.”
— Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
“If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that students everywhere need access to high-quality learning anywhere. We believe Labster successfully leverages its game engine to deliver interactive virtual lab experiences that consistently engage science students whether they are learning inside a school building or at home.”
— Jenny Lee, Managing Partner at GGV Capital
“It has been incredible to watch Labster’s progress over the past four years as they have pushed forward their mission of democratizing high-quality education. Adoption has already skyrocketed across Europe and North America, and the team is now building on this momentum, bringing access to best-in-class education to new corners of the world and inspiring the next generation of scientists.”
— Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, who led Labster’s Series A for Balderton Capital
