Digital higher education learning platform Engageli has raised $33m in Series A funding as it seeks to further scale its product development and fuel continued growth.
“Engageli is reimagining online education,” said the company’s co-founder and CEO Dan Avida, who launched the company with Stanford emeritus professor Serge Plotkin and Coursera co-founder and Stanford adjunct professor Daphne Koller in 2020.
“We built Engageli to deliver exceptional student experiences that are personal, engaging and rooted in learning outcomes,” he said of the platform, which focuses on human connection, interaction and inclusion.
Co-led by Maveron, the funding round features additional investors including Corner Ventures, Good Friends, Educapital, and several prominent individual technology executives, along with seed round investors.
The company’s total financing now stands at more than $47m, after it raised $14.5m in 2020.
“Higher education institutions, instructors, and students are looking towards a future where multiple modalities for learning exist in parallel – in person teaching, synchronous and asynchronous online education, as well as hybrid models.
“Engageli’s platform is designed to support and enhance all these modalities.”
Features of the platform include flexible table groups, student note-taking, Q&A, chat functions, and student-instructor feedback loops, which are all designed to enhance both the teaching and learning experience.
“Dan Avida and his team at Engageli, that includes professors, talented technologists and accomplished edtech executives, are uniquely suited to building a digital education solution that actually feels like a classroom and functions even better than some in-person courses,” explained Jason Stoffer, partner at Maveron.
“[Engageli is] uniquely suited to building a digital education solution that actually feels like a classroom and functions even better than some in-person courses”
“Pandemic or not, every school needs Engageli to drive better outcomes for students, whether they’re taking remote classes full time or opt to tune in digitally when they need the flexibility,” he added.
“We’re passionate about leveling the playing field in higher education, and Engageli’s unique platform will help institutions reach and support the needs of every type of student.”
Testimony from Queen Mary University of London professor Theodora Christou noted the digital Engageli experience was “the most like a real classroom”.
“Students are sitting at tables, I can quickly see what they are doing, they can ask others at their table questions, they are chatting and interacting,” Christou said. “I finally have an easy way to lead meaningful group work and case studies online.”
The company has also welcomed a range of experienced edtech executives to its team including Adam Spivak, senior vice president, North America Partnerships, Giovanni Dubois, senior vice president, Global Partner Success and International Partnerships, Andreina Parisi-Amon, vice president, Teaching and Learning and Talia Kolodny, Director, EMEA Partnerships.
“Maveron and Good Friends have a proven track record of building successful consumer companies and we look forward to partnering with them to build a platform that is beloved by students and instructors,” Avida added.
