- San Francisco-based live online K-12 classes marketplace company Outschool announced it raised $8.5 million in Series A funding
- Union Square Ventures and Reach Capital co-led this round of funding
- Jennifer Carolan of Reach is joining the board at Outschool
Outschool, a San Francisco-based live online K-12 classes marketplace company, announced it raised $8.5 million in Series A funding. Union Square Ventures and Reach Capital co-led this round of funding. Reach was founded by Jennifer Carolan — who is a former teacher and has joined the board at Outschool.
With this round of funding, Outschool is planning to build an inspirational learning platform that addresses the challenges and opportunities of kids’ education in the twenty-first century.
“Our mission is to inspire kids to love learning. We provide small group classes that meet over live video chat where learners are connected with teachers and classmates who share their interests. These classes are offered through our marketplace and conducted on our remote learning platform,” said Outschool co-founder and CEO Amir Nathoo.
Nick Grandy (former lead engineer at Airbnb and product manager at Clever) and Mikhail Seregine (former Google product manager) are also co-founders of Outschool.
Using Outschool, teachers have the creative freedom to set up classes like Harry Potter Chemistry, Minecraft Architecture, and Pokemon Biology. Kids enjoy taking these classes since they connect learning with subjects that they are already interested in.
The focus on kids education typically revolves around the end result such as test scores, the college acceptance letters, and the job offers. While mastering subjects and seeing concrete benefits are important, it is important to foster a love of learning in order for kids to become successful throughout life. There are tens of thousands of families who have already enrolled in Outschool.
“Inspired by my own experiences, I started Outschool in 2015 because I wanted to create better learning experiences for kids. I’d been thinking about applying technology in education for a long time,” added Nathoo. “I had a fantastic education in the UK, including studying engineering at the University of Cambridge, which was challenging and provided a great base of knowledge. However, some of my most impactful learning experiences happened outside of school.”
Generally, small group live online classes broaden access and benefit learners and teachers alike. And these classes are less expensive for parents and more lucrative for teachers than one-on-one tutoring since the costs are split between the participants. Plus there is no need to burn time and money traveling to physical facilities for an in-person activity.
