Indianapolis tech startup Reportwell lands $1.1M investment
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Indianapolis-based Reportwell, an early-stage tech startup founded by former educators flummoxed by regulatory filings, has secured $1.1 million in pre-seed funding.
The funding round, which closed Tuesday, included participation from Detroit Venture Partners; the Broomfield, Colorado-based Charter School Growth Fund; the Chicago-based Ruthless for Good Fund; Everywhere Ventures and Techstars, both based in New York City; and Dug Song, the founder of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Duo Security.
Reportwell, which launched in 2023, offers an online platform that makes it easier for its customers to file required regulatory compliance reports.
The company’s co-founders previously held leadership positions at PilotED Schools, a not-for-profit operator of charter schools. PilotED currently operates two charter schools: Bethel Park Elementary in Indianapolis, and Cactus Park Elementary in Las Vegas.
It was while working at PilotED Schools that the idea for Reportwell was born.
“As we were building these public charter schools, we started becoming overwhelmed, to say the least, with just the number of regulatory reports that we had to submit to the state Department of Education, the city of Indianapolis,” said Reportwell co-founder and CEO Jacob Allen. Allen was also a co-founder and the CEO of PilotED.
That reporting burden, Allen said, led him and some of his colleagues to believe that there might be a market for an online platform that could serve as a central portal for all of a school’s required reporting—everything from attendance records to a detailed accounting of grant spending.
Reportwell built a basic version of such a platform about 14 months ago and tested it with schools, school districts and state education departments. That early testing showed that there was indeed demand for what Reportwell had envisioned, Allen said. “People said, ‘Hey, if you build this, we want to be one of your first launch customers.’”
The company participated in the Techstars Detroit startup accelerator program earlier this year, and the commercial version of Reportwell’s platform officially launched last month.
Reportwell’s early customers include New Orleans Public Schools, the state of Missouri, and various school districts around the U.S.
For now, Allen said, Reportwell is focused on the K-12 education market. But the company also sees opportunities in other regulated industries such as higher education, utilities, and health care.
“We’re not launching a product yet in those industries, but we’re starting to have some really early R&D conversations around how our software can be applicable in regulatory compliance writ large,” Allen said.
Allen’s four co-founders are Chief Operating Officer Lani Luo; Chief Customer Officer Jennica Adkins; Chief Product Officer Jacob Peters; and Chief Financial Officer David Spitz, who is working for Reportwell part-time.
The company has a total of six employees including the founders, with two more soon to join the company.