NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Schoology, developers of the pioneering, free, cloud-based collaborative learning platform for K-12 classrooms, today announced a $1 million investment from Cempaka Schools in Malaysia and a partnership to jointly promote increased usage of the Schoology platform in school systems throughout Malaysia and Singapore.
Cempaka Schools, an elite group of five for-profit, private Malaysian primary and secondary schools, began using Schoology in 2010 after experiencing dissatisfaction with the functionality of its previous learning management system. Impressed with Schoology's readily apparent competitive advantages, Cempaka executives approached Schoology CEO Jeremy Friedman with a proposal to become a stakeholder in the company.
"Within the first few days of using Schoology, we saw enormous potential for it to become the premier learning platform in our region," said Dr. Iskandar Rizal, Chairman of Cempaka Schools. "As we expect to play a major role in helping Schoology expand throughout the region, we wanted to have a vested financial interest in the company's success."
The partnership between Schoology and Cempaka calls for the latter to act as Schoology's primary liaison with the educational communities in Malaysia and Singapore. Its leadership will serve to introduce and promote the learning platform to regionally based primary and secondary school administrators and educators, as well as other interested parties, such as government education officials.
"We continue to sign contracts with prestigious K-12 school districts at a pace that exceeds expectations, both domestically and abroad," Mr. Friedman said. "Cempaka's investment is a powerful endorsement of our learning platform, and we value the company's strong commitment to Schoology. The Cempaka team's local-market knowledge and resources will be of significant value to our expansion plans throughout the region."
With Cempaka's investment, Schoology has raised $3.3 million to date in venture capital funding.
ABOUT SCHOOLOGY
New York-based Schoology is the developer of the collaborative learning platform that is marketed under the same brand name. Focusing primarily on K-12 classrooms, Schoology is an easy-to-use, easy-to-implement online learning, classroom management, and social networking platform that improves the learning experience for teachers and students, and encourages and facilitates parental engagement in the education process through better communication, collaboration, and enhanced access to curriculum and supplemental content.
Available as both a free, stand-alone product and as a fee-based, configurable integrated enterprise solution for schools and districts, Schoology is a cloud-based system that requires no installation, training, or maintenance. Its platform integrates seamlessly with existing school/district technologies to create a single, scalable interface where educators can teach, assess, administer, and analyze student progress. Schoology expands the educator's support and resource network by enabling meaningful academic collaboration through the sharing of best practices and digital content via school-to-school networking and an easy-to-access centralized resource library. For more information, please visit schoology.com or engage with us via Twitter @schoology.
ABOUT CEMPAKA SCHOOLS
Cempaka Schools was founded by Dato Freida Pilus in 1983 and is the largest privately owned education organization in Malaysia. It operates five private schools in Malaysia, working closely with the ministry of education towards model schools around the country. Cempaka has been recognized for its breakthrough achievements in nurturing young and talented pupils, regardless of their age and background. Cempaka is an education technology pioneer in the region; it became South East Asia's first Apple Distinguished School in 2002, in recognition of its innovative use of technology to transform teaching and learning. In 2006, Cempaka became the country's first (and remains the largest) implementation of a one-to-one laptop program, with Schoology as its backbone across all its campuses.