Piazza is a social Q&A network launched in early 2011 that lets classes create dedicated hubs where students and instructors ask questions, contribute answers and bookmark threads. The platform found early traction with engineering students and claims half of undergraduates at schools like Berkeley, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and MIT are on the site. Between the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 academic years, Piazza's user base grew from 236K to 762K, and students in more than 60 countries access the platform; average engagement is two to three hours per night. Piazza has built a recruiting product, Piazza Careers, which lets companies search and message its over one million student users for subscription fees starting at $20K per semester. The company plans to expand its social Q&A network beyond math and the sciences into additional subjects and majors within higher education. Financially, Piazza has raised a total of $15.5M to date. Piazza offers class-specific Q&A hubs that combine wiki and forum features, allowing multiple students to collaboratively edit answers while preserving version history. Instructor answers are separated from student contributions and students can bookmark questions to signal interest. The platform emerged from private beta in January and now enrolls more than 100,000 students across hundreds of schools, including 109 of the top 250 U.S. colleges. Piazza reported that 96% of questions received an answer with a median response time of 25 minutes; 45% of questions received student answers and 67% received instructor answers. The most active class logged over 19,000 contributions in a semester, and students stay logged in an average of four hours per day. Piazza has launched iOS and Android clients and plans to use new funding for research and development and expansion into additional schools and universities. Piazza is a free online collaboration dashboard that connects students and instructors to help each other find answers to complex questions in real time. Founded in 2009 in Palo Alto, CA by CEO Pooja Nath, the platform is designed to provide intellectual space and support for students. Piazza reports members spend two-to-four hours a night collaborating with classmates. The core product is a forum-like dashboard enabling real-time Q&A and peer collaboration. The company plans to launch an Android version. Financially, Piazza has secured seed funding to support its growth.

Total raised

$16M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Feb 2014