In the News
EDTECH NEWS THAT MATTERS
GHP is your source for the news on the EdTech mergers, acquisitions, and trends that are helping to shape our industry.
IN EDTECH NEWS - June 2019
June 30, 2019
By PRIYA WADHWA
A new EdTech startup contender, Orcas, has raised $500K in a pre-Series A. The funding round was led by Algebra Ventures, Egypt’s leading VC fund, with participation from NFX Capital.
Orcas is a mobile application that connects parents as well as students with their tutors and babysitters. By doing so is address one of the major pain points of all parties involved when it comes to parenting, caretaking and raising children.
June 30, 2019
Noon Academy, an online learning platform that operates throughout the Middle East, announced today that it has raised $8.6 million in series A funding. The round was co-led by Raed Ventures and STV with participation from institutional investor Alisamiah Investment in addition to a number of private investors including Careem co-founder Abdulla Elyas, Dr. Abdulrahman Aljadhai, CEO of Elm, and Mazen Aljubai, with support from Saudi Venture Capital company (SVC).
June 28, 2019
Edtech vendors and products are not in short supply in 2019. But reliable information on their use can be hard to come by. Clever, a San Francisco-based edtech company with numerous products, thinks they struck a solution with Clever Library, an online catalogue containing hundreds of tools, products, and courseware offerings for classroom use. On June 24th, they announced that 250,000 teachers had put it to use since launching one year ago. According to the company, these teachers have created over 9 million student accounts.
June 28, 2019
Some experts speculate that esports could be a powerful way for universities to invigorate science, technology, engineering and math program enrollments, narrowing the racial and gender gaps persisting in STEM education.
According to recent data from the American Council on Education, African American and Hispanic students were the least likely to enroll in and complete their degree programs, accounting for just 12 and 17 percent, respectively, of all STEM graduates.
June 28, 2019
Hailing from the small village of Dankaur in Uttar Pradesh, Anil Nagar’s parents could not get any education themselves. Wanting a different future for their son, they encouraged him to go for IIT-JEE coaching. After successfully cracking the exam, Anil went to IIT-BHU to study electronics engineering. Eventually, he went to the US to work with Cognizant.
June 28, 2019
BY JENNIFER RUMAO
Augmented reality or virtual reality is facilitating the growth of computing power. This technology can integrate new and trending algorithms of Big Data, Artificial intelligence, and wearable devices, among others. Conglomeration of augmented reality with virtual reality is expected to drive the growth of next generation computing and work as an instinctive edge for Internet of Things (IoT).
June 26, 2019
June 25, 2019
It was a small moment for Irma Olguin Jr., but a memorable one. One night about 15 years ago, she was working late as a computer engineer for the city of Cincinnati. She ordered a plain cheese pizza and handed the deliverer money without worry over whether she gave exact change.
June 25, 2019
Google Blog
At ISTE 2019, we’re highlighting a wide range of apps and integrations that make learning more accessible for students of diverse strengths, abilities and needs. We work closely with developers to ensure these accessibility-focused tools and integrations work with our own products, and evolve based on the needs of students and educators who share their feedback with us.
June 20, 2019
Taylor Hill devised a plan to better her life. To move beyond her current customer-service job, she’d teach herself how to use customer-management software popular with the type of higher-paid sales position she coveted. But the self-described visual learner realized self-teaching didn’t work for her without someone to make sure she truly understood the work.
June 14, 2019
LONDON, June 14, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Global edtech firm Studycat today welcomes investor Johan Leven as chairman of its board ahead of its founder speaking at EdTechXEurope in London on June 18th.
Johan Leven is currently a founding partner at Quintus Partners, an investment firm based in Asia and the United States. Prior to Quintus Partners, Leven enjoyed a 19-year career at Goldman Sachs, including as partner in charge of mergers and acquisitions for Asia Ex-Japan and in other leadership roles. After Goldman Sachs, he led the build-out of Barclays' client coverage organisation in the Asia Pacific region.
June 14, 2019
Todd Brekhus learned a lesson in effective communication back in 2003. At the time, he was part of PLATO Learning, a school instructional software vendor now known as Edmentum. PLATO had reportedly spent about $50 million to buy another company to expand the school grades it serviced. But according to Brekhus, now chief product officer at Renaissance Learning, PLATO failed to effectively communicate how Lightspan fit into the company’s strategy.
June 14, 2019
In 2018, U.S. education technology companies raised $1.45 billion, which was the same as in 2015 but eclipsed the $1.2 billion raised by U.S. edtech startups in 2017. Globally, $6 billion of venture capital investment went into edtech, almost twice as much as in 2017.
June 12, 2019
Scheduling isn’t for the faint of heart, as anyone who’s tried to find a time and room for a team meeting well knows. For colleges and universities, the challenge boils down to this: given a finite set of classrooms and faculty availability, how can officials offer courses that students want and need to take, at times that instructors can teach?
June 12, 2019
We expect leaders to show vision and give direction, but in the current environment, it’s not that simple. Today’s learning environment is too complex and modern learning poses many challenges, which makes leadership for Edtech CEOs problematic. Here are a few suggested skills and qualities that will stand leaders in education technology in good stead.