Atomico, a venture firm with backing from Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, is investing once again in the e-learning sector. Existing portfolio company Quipper, a UK company that offers online quiz content that focuses on academic courses and professional qualifications, as well as trivia and news quizzes, has raised $5.8m in a second tranche of a series A round. The well-rounded content is created by individuals such as teachers, industry experts or enthusiasts, as well as through partnerships with publishing houses. The latest deal brings the company’s fundraising efforts to just over $10m.
Benesse, a Japan education publisher also participated in this round. Other investors from Japan, however unnamed, also took part.
The company’s lead product is called Quipper School and allows teachers and educators set and track assignments, answer students’ questions via IM, push out feedback and grading, and monitor individuals’ learning progress.
Atomico has been an investor from the start, injecting £400m in Quipper’s seed round; then again in a 2012 first tranche series A worth £2.3m alongside Japan-based private equity firm Globis Capital Partners.
Quipper was established in 2010 by Masayuki Watanabe who is the co-founder of a social game company DeNA.
Atomico has also recently led a new $12.3m financing round in BebeStore, an online baby and maternal goods company based in Brazil that it has backed before, Atomico founder Zennstrom said in an interview according to the New York Times. The round also included a bridge loan. W7 Brazil Capital, a local investment firm, also added to its earlier financing of the company.