Educational publisher Woongjin ThinkBig co-led a $19.1m series C round for Kidaptive, the US-based developer of a personalised learning system for children, with venture capital firm Formation 8 yesterday.
Spun out of Stanford University in 2011, Kidaptive has created a cloud-based adaptive learning platform that brings together data from different learning-based sources so that a student’s progress can be assessed more effectively.
The system also enables learning targets to be set so they increase student engagement. It will use the series C funds to add a range of machine learning-based tools to the platform.
PJ Gunsagar, co-founder and chief executive of Kidaptive, said: “Big data for learning is finally beginning to take off thanks in part to our pioneering efforts in this area.
“And our partnerships are ramping up as companies realise they must give contextual meaning to the torrent of data coming in and create personalised experiences for their learners.”
Kidaptive began raising the series C funding in 2015, a regulatory filing indicates. Formation 8 had led its $10.1m series B round in 2013, investing alongside visual effects creator Prana Studios, Menlo Ventures, StartX and NewSchools Venture Fund.
Menlo Ventures had led Kidaptive’s series A round, which closed at $1.35m in 2013 according to a securities filing, and which included Prana, CrunchFund, Veddis Ventures, S-Cubed Capital, VKRM Ventures and iCamp. Its backers also include Cambridge University, the company said.