Edtech startup Edrolo has raised $40 million in a Series B that has caught the attention of four pension funds.
The round was led by Blackbird, supported by AirTree and pension funds Aware Super, HESTA, NGS and Telstra Super.
The goal of the 10-year venture is to improve the resources and content schools use for teaching and learning.
Edrolo is used by more than 250,000 students in more than 1,100 schools nationwide each year. They used the platform for 71 million online videos and 106 million pieces of content in 2021. The focus so far has been on the high school years and they will now turn their attention to material for in years 7 to 10 in a staggered approach.
The company’s goal is to have one million students from Years 7 to 12 using the resources by 2025 – a 300% growth in just three years.
Co-founder and co-CEO Ben Sze said the company is at a major turning point along with the educators and students who use it.
“We are humbled by the fact that we have some of Australia’s best investors who support and enable us to provide teachers and students across Australia from the ages 7 to 12 with carefully crafted learning tools that can change student outcomes,” he said.
“This is our reason for being, and a great responsibility – something we don’t take lightly. The Edrolo team, of almost 200 people, works on this every day. We believe we can make the biggest difference and impact by focusing on improving the more than 6,000 hours a student spends in secondary education.”
Sze said she had the h . of the platform will expandengaging, high-quality content for every lesson, saving teachers preparation time and keeping students interested, working and learning.
Edrolo launching core curriculum resources for Year 7 Mathematics and Science, with Humanities later this year.
“More than 25,000 hours of expertise were put into the new Year 7 math and science resources,” said Sze.
“Edrolo’s writing process differs from traditional publishers, as everything is created in-house by expert teams from 5-10 people working full time year round on research, authoring and quality ensure the resources that Edrolo creates.”
Aware Super Senior Portfolio Manager Jenny Newmarch said the fund aims to invest in companies that have a positive impact on its members in their everyday lives.
“Edrolo’s solutions have played a huge role in supporting teachers and students during school closures and Australia’s forced need to embrace distance learning,” she said.
“As the super fund for hundreds of thousands of Australian teachers, Aware Super is proud to invest in such a great Australian innovation story and support the vital work of our educators every day.”