EverFi, a US-based education technology company, has raised $10m in its series B round from a consortium including media-focused investment bank Allen and Company.
Also joining in this financing are venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and Rethink Education; Tomorrow Ventures (the investment arm of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt); and angel investors Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of online retailer Amazon, social messaging service Twitter founder Evan Williams and education technology peer Blackboard’s CEO, Michael Chasen.
EverFi had previously raised $11m in September 2010.
EverFi has certified more than 4 million students by letting 750 corporations, foundations and others pay all of the cost for schools and students. Partners include fast-food retailer Burger King, soft drinks maker PepsiCo, banks BBVA Compass, Capital One, Genworth Financial and US Bank and the John Calipari Family Foundation.
Separately, TomorrowVentures has backed Australia-based Binu, a mobile start-up that brings smartphone-like experiences to dumb phones, in a $2m round of series A funding which included private investors in the US and Australia.
Binu is expected to reach 10 million active users within the year and increase that to 100 million over next couple of years. July saw 800 million pages viewed over the service and 1 billion this month is possible.