US-based bank Allen & Company has re-invested in PresenceLearning, a San Francisco-based provider of online speech and occupational therapy services for K-12 students, as part of an $8m series B round of funding. The deal was led by New Markets Venture Partners and Blue Heron Capital with participation from Birchmere Ventures and prior investors Catamount Ventures and Calvert Funds. The series A funding amount provided by Allen & Company has not been made public.
“The support from our funders is a tremendous validation of how our online speech therapy and online occupational therapy services are helping students with special needs thrive,” said Jack Lynch and Clay Whitehead, co-CEOs of PresenceLearning in a statement. “This funding will allow us to grow our already popular and successful services and expand into more areas as we continue our leadership role in the market.”
The product is being widely used in US schools filling the gap in on-site special needs educators. According to Whitehead, there is a chronic shortage of staff to serve the 6.5 million special education students nationally, with only about 60,000 speech-language pathologists working in schools, and between 5,000 and 7,000 speech therapist positions vacant.
It allows schools and parents to access a network of speech language pathologists, who work directly with students via web-based videoconferencing using a suite of online tools and evidence-based therapeutic activities. According to the company it has facilitated more than 200,000 live, online therapy sessions. Special education is a big market, accounting for 13 percent of the US national public school population, but 20 per cent of spending — or $110bn, Whitehead has said in newspaper reports.
Founded in 2009, the company was formerly known as Presence Telecare, Inc. and changed its name to PresenceLearning in August 2011.
Other recent deals in the online education segment include Kickboard, a US-based education technology provider, which raised $2m in its series A round co-led by Two Sigma Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of US-based finance and technology firm Two Sigma Investments. Venture capital firm New Markets Venture Partners was the co-lead in Kickboard’s round, which also included angel investors.