Ed Tech Company Lands More Funding
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAn Indianapolis-based educational technology company has closed on a $585,000 round of funding. Perceivant, which develops interactive guided courseware, says it will use the investment to accelerate efforts to bring its product to more higher education institutions throughout the country. The investors that participated in the funding round include Elevate Ventures in Indianapolis, among others.
Perceivant currently has eight full-time and four part-time employees. Its courseware is being used at 12 universities, including Ohio State University, Brigham Young University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brian Rowe, chief executive officer of Perceivant, says the new funding is "pure growth capital" to be used to grow the size of the company’s target market.
"Because of the long sales cycles in higher education, it’s critical for us to get more schools in the top of our funnel and aware of our solution as quickly as we can," said Rowe. "This funding will help accelerate that."
Perceivant’s online platform replaces traditional textbooks and e-books with interactive digital content the company says increases student access and engagement. The platform is available in classrooms, online and on mobile devices. It also includes training time for educators.
"Perceivant has found a way to compete against large college textbook publishers by providing an online learning platform that offers quality content on an interface that gives instructors high levels of customization and reporting and students a cost-effective option," said Jacob Schpok, entrepreneur-in-residence for Elevate Ventures. "The leadership team and advisors have backgrounds in the education and business development space which leads Elevate Ventures to believe Perceivant has the team and business model to be successful."
The company’s platform currently offers four courses in the health science field, with more courses in development. Elevate Ventures says Perceivant’s largest university partner saw a 48 percent reduction in students receiving a grade of D or F, or withdrawing from the course after implementing the platform.