According to the NIH, 71% of college students reported that stress and anxiety had increased due to COVID. Some of the most common stressors identified were concern over personal and familial health, difficulty concentrating, disruptive sleeping patterns, and decreased social interactions. However, only 5% of these respondents reported using mental health counseling services. Mantra Health is a digital mental health platform that partners with universities and colleges to make mental healthcare accessible to these students. The company offers at its core, a telehealth platform that provides students with access to licensed psychiatrists and therapy providers in the Mantra network and a back-end platform that allows the university to refer and monitor their students’ cases, supported by a robust EHR system. Students can now access vetted providers in minutes rather than weeks without worrying about cost; payment is a blend of insurance and university-sponsored. Mantra is live at campuses across six states presently with plans to provide nationwide coverage before the fall semester. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder & CEO Ed Gaussen to learn more about the importance of making mental health accessible for college students, the company’s future expansion plans, and recent seed extension from investors that include Canaan Partners, City Light Capital, and Baleon Capital, and Dr. Nitin Nanda.
Education
Codecademy Raises $40M as the Interest in Coding Education Surges
Coding has become a new form of literacy in an ever-increasing digital world. Proficiency in coding has significant societal and individual ramifications including the potential to improve educational equality, STEM interest, critical reasoning skills, and building an inclusive workforce. Codecademy is one of the pioneering online coding education platforms, launched in 2011. The company now offers a robust catalog of interactive courses for web development, programming and computer science, and data science that focuses on the most relevant and in-demand skills. The startup has already has helped 50M+ individuals and the model is versatile depending on your preference and level of interest in coding with three main products – the free product, Codecademy Pro ($40) that offers unlimited access to the catalog of courses, and Codecademy for Business, which helps companies upskill their employees. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Zach Sims to learn more about the company’s evolution since its founding in 2011, future plans, and latest funding round from investors that include Owl Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and Prosus.
Brainly Scores $80M for its Online P2P Learning Platform and Community
The pandemic has severely disrupted the framework of education globally. With in-person learning halted or interrupted, both parents and students have faced added pressure to adjust to the concept of remote learning. Brainly is a peer-to-peer online learning platform for parents and students that helps alleviate some of these challenges. At its core, the platform focuses on homework help and questions, where students can give or receive help in a trusted community. Not surprisingly, in 2020, the company experienced 75% growth for its freemium service and now has over 350M students in its community. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO Michał Borkowski to learn more about the massive shift in online learning as a result of the pandemic, the company’s plans to expand its product offering and geographically, and the company’s recent round of funding from Learn Capital, Prosus Ventures, Runa Capital, MantaRay, and General Catalyst.
Where We Are Investing Now: Market-Based Education
Education is part of health and happiness as a means of intellectual and financial empowerment and as a vector for delight. Happiness can be enhanced by the acquisition of new skills. Where education was once the province only of formal institutions and largely as part of long-term pedagogical programs, today education is becoming a pure consumer product. It is available by the course, by the class, or by the experience, whenever and wherever desired. Professional grade skills, and the certifications that come with them, can be obtained in the precise measures required by the market, and often at no immediate cost to the student.
Rah Rah Raises Another $1M to Enrich Student Life on Campus through its Community Engagement Platform
College offers a myriad of activities outside of the classroom and college has traditionally been the time for young adults to discover and explore their interests. But if you walk through any college campus, you’ll see a litany of activities that frankly can be overwhelming. Rah Rah is the campus engagement platform that centralizes all that college has to offer in one easy-to-use app. CEO and Cofounder Cooper Jones walks us through the need for Rah Rah, building a connected digital experience for academic institutions and students, and the company’s recent funding round from Workday executives Dave Duffield and Phil Wilmington.
ClassTag Raises Another $5M for its Interactive Communication Platform That Connects Parents and Teachers
COVID has brought digital tools to the forefront when it comes to learning and children and a number of challenges that were never expected. ClassTag was prescient in this respect with its digital communication platform that connects educators and parents to ensure that parents are engaged in their child’s education. CEO and Cofounder Vlada Lotkina met her cofounder Jason while they were their children attended the same pre-school to address the challenges they faced as parents of school-age children. ClassTag now has 24K active schools on the platform with 2 million engaged parents. Vlada shares some insight into the journey of scaling the business, the company’s future plans, and latest funding, which brings its total funding raised to $11.6M
Relish Raises Another $5M for its Relationship Training App That Allows Couples to Strengthen and Rebuild
Lesley Eccles cofounded a unicorn with her husband. The toll on a relationship that building a flourishing business brings led her to launch an interactive relationship training app so that what we can all be our best selves for our partners. Meet Relish…
Teachable Acquired by Hotmart as the Online Class Market Consolidates
Teachable, the edtech platform that allows anyone to affordably create and sell online courses, has been acquired by Hotmart, a global platform for online courses. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed but sources close to the transaction have indicated that the transaction amount was approximately $250M. Founded in 2016 by Ankur Nagpal and Conrad Wadowski, […]
EdSights is the Text-Based Chatbot That Solves the College Dropout Crisis
Meet EdSights, the text messaging chatbot that’s helping universities to reduce dropout rates. Cofounders Claudia Recchi and Carolina Recchi tell us more.
Outlier.org Raises Another $11.7M to Revamp College-Level Online Education
With the cost of collegiate education soaring, many are questioning the value of pursuing higher education. Outlier.org is tackling this problem head-on with its online learning platform that allows students to complete entry-level courses online for credit at a fraction of the cost of traditional courses. The courses in the curriculum are gracefully designed and […]
littleBits Acquired by Sphero
littleBits Electronics, the open-source library and maker of electronic modules and kits to foster STEM learning, has been acquired by Boulder-based Sphero. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “When I studied engineering, it was top-down, test-based,” said Ayah Bdeir, founder of littleBits. “I hated it and wanted to quit every semester. Then I […]