MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Addressing both the challenges and opportunities within the changing education landscape has never been more top-of-mind for educators, investors, and tech leaders. To spearhead the creation of a new kind of online learning experience, Fiveable, an edtech platform that seeks to democratize learning, has secured $2.3 million in venture capital funding to bridge the gap between content and community.
The current funding round, which brings Fiveable’s fundraising total to $3.5 million, was led by BBG Ventures, a leading venture capital firm backing female founders transforming the collective and lived experience like the ones behind Zola, Full Harvest, and Spring Health. Additional investors include Metrodora Ventures (Chelsea Clinton’s newly launched fund focused on health and learning businesses), Deborah Quazzo, Spero Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Cream City Venture Capital, 27V, Golden Angel Investors, and SoGal.
“Amanda’s experience as a teacher who has grown AP programs and improved test scores, combined with her student-first approach to building product and her understanding of peer-to-peer interactions makes her uniquely positioned to build the new social network for education, democratizing access at a time when students need it most,” said Nisha Dua, General Partner at BBG Ventures.
Currently serving 1.5 million high school students with dedicated test prep resources, the secured funds will help propel Fiveable forward towards a new, reimagined social learning experience.
"Investing in solutions that answer young people's needs and challenges is an investment in our country's future. As we launch Metrodora Ventures, we're thrilled to be supporting a leader like Amanda, whose passion for democratizing access to high quality education is at the core of every decision, and a company like Fiveable that fosters creativity and critical thinking for students inside and outside the classroom," said Chelsea Clinton, Co-founder of Metrodora Ventures.
The new Fiveable community, which will launch in beta this Winter, was founded on the principle of prioritizing inclusion and engaging students on topics that matter most to them. Dedicated spaces, which have organically evolved to align with students’ interests, house discussions around social justice, mental health, LGBTQIA, affirmations, and much more, allowing students to expand their learnings and perspectives beyond the content being taught in the classroom.
The company formed an 800 student team of “Founding Members” to identify the specific problems high school students face and to develop a community space that could tackle them. These students worked closely with the company’s product team through design forums, focus groups, and brainstorming sessions.
“When we brought students into the product development process, we found that their main challenges were more about isolation and motivation rather than a lack of resources. While COVID-19 has escalated this, a community to connect students across school boundaries has been sorely needed for a long time. We’re grateful to have an incredible group of investors behind us who share our vision and support our student-first approach,” said Amanda DoAmaral, founder and CEO of Fiveable.
Fiveable’s primary goal is to blend together education and socialization with a platform that provides a library of more than 5,000 pieces of content -- study guides, live streamed lessons, Q&A forums -- and community, where students are seen holistically and can support each other socially and safely online.
The first market for this community space are the 3 million Advanced Placement students, 50 percent of whom Fiveable is already serving through free resources. In the last three years, students who studied with Fiveable achieved a 92% pass rate on these exams.
“It’s fundamentally about building confidence in students, which can only come from a blend of content and community support,” DoAmaral noted.
To provide an extra layer of support for students this school year, the company recently launched a Fall and Spring offering of Fiveable Courses. Courses are available for all 38 AP subjects and include 15 weeks of live, online instruction, study guides for every unit, practice assignments, feedback from exam readers, office hours with student TAs and live chat help. Additional offerings, like a free College Admissions course, are frequently being developed to better serve students.
ABOUT FIVEABLE
Fiveable is an online social learning company that seeks to democratize learning and empower high school students through educational content, community, and collaboration. By providing students with free and engaging resources, Fiveable helps students master complex concepts and skills through interactive live streamed lessons and discussions, fun review games, and study guides. Fiveable was founded in 2018 by educator, activist and entrepreneur Amanda DoAmaral and has since supported 1.5M high school students and helped them achieve a 92% pass rate on the Advanced Placement (AP) exam. For more information about Fiveable, please visit www.fiveable.me or follow on Twitter @thinkfiveable.