Packback provides an AI-enabled platform that delivers inquiry-based online discussion (Packback Questions) and long-form writing support (Packback Deep Dives). Its proprietary AI acts as a digital writing assistant, giving individualized feedback to students and scaffolded support to make grading more seamless for educators. The platform is grounded in cognitive frameworks such as Bloom's Taxonomy and Self Determination Theory and uses models developed over more than six years to coach students without writing for them. Packback serves over 1.5 million students and more than 10,000 instructors across thousands of K-12 and higher-education courses. Company-cited research indicates improved academic outcomes, increased writing confidence, and instructor-reported improvements in writing quality among users. The company says it is positioned to meet urgent market demand and aims to expand the delivery of timely, high-quality feedback at scale with PSG's support. Packback is an education technology company offering Packback Questions, an AI-supported online discussion platform that supports student curiosity, communication and critical thinking skills. The platform delivers a scalable asynchronous discussion experience using AI for automation of moderation and coaching, features that allow professors to scale their impact and provide service and support. The company raised $2.5M to maintain its growth as it expands its user base and team, with plans to create 45 new jobs. Packback added more than 25 employees in 2018 and expected to grow to 100 employees by the end of 2019. Leadership includes CEO Mike Shannon, CPO Jessica Tenuta, VP of Sales Roberto Torreggiani, and Head of Engineering Dr. Craig M. Booth. Board member Dr. James Caras joined the company's board following the funding announcement. Packback is a Chicago-based developer of an AI-powered online discussion platform used by over 100 U.S. universities. Its platform enables instructors to make student academic discourse a core part of curriculum and coursework and supports the Socratic Method in large lectures and online classes. Packback’s algorithms analyze students’ written questions and responses to quantify and improve behaviors like critical thinking and curiosity. The product incorporates gamification elements, including points and leaderboards, to drive engagement. The company uses a human-assisted approach to AI, training models and data sets with feedback from college professors. Packback recently raised $4.2M in a Series A led by University Ventures. Packback builds artificial intelligence that analyzes students' written questions and essay answers to quantify and improve student success metrics such as critical thinking, soft skills and curiosity. Its product, Packback Questions, is a smart online discussion platform powered by that AI where students engage in rigorous academic discourse as part of coursework. The company plans to use recent funding to continue scaling nationally and expects to pursue a Series A. Packback was founded by Jessica Tenuta and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The article reports a $1.5M financing that the company intends to supplement with additional capital in an upcoming round.

Total raised

$8M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jan 2019