Quick Key is an app that streamlines quiz grading using optical character recognition and is designed to work with or without an internet connection. The company announced a roughly $250,000 raise to expand its reach and improve the product. Its app has been used to scan about 300,000 quizzes, and one teacher reported grading 400 exams in under an hour. Founder Walter Duncan, a 15-year teacher who left the classroom to run the company, and co-founder Isaac D. Van Wesep lead a small team that includes former students who built the web app. Shareholders include ARC Capital and an anonymous investor who previously invested $250,000; the company has raised approximately $330,000 from investors since launching in August 2012 and also raised $100,000 on Kickstarter. The company added Gary June, CMO of Pearson, to its board of directors. Quick Key (Design by Educators, Inc.) is a mobile grading app that lets teachers scan paper “exit tickets” or Scantron-style sheets with a phone and receive instant grades. The app was developed by a founding team of teachers—Walter O. Duncan IV, Isaac D. Van Wesep, and Marlon Davis—who designed the product from classroom experience. Quick Key went viral after a poorly lit demo video garnered roughly 260,000 YouTube views and appeared on Reddit’s front page, driving over 10,000 visitors to the site in 48 hours and recruiting more than 1,000 people interested in beta testing. The company is pre-beta and reports it has no customers yet; several teachers have signed up to try the early prototype. Management says the funds raised will be used to build the app further and onboard beta testers, and the team is iterating the product for general use.

Total raised

$100M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2014