Showbie provides a classroom platform that enables faster, easier grading and assessment while delivering operational efficiencies for schools and districts. The product offers free and paid subscription tiers; roughly 65% of customers are paid. Pre-pandemic the platform served about 18,000 teachers per month and today serves 55,000 teachers per month across more than 135 countries, with core K-12 markets in the U.S., U.K., and Nordic countries and emerging use in the Middle East and Australia. Usage surged during COVID-19 (a reported 251% year-over-year increase in platform usage) and average teachers now use the platform three to four times as often as before the pandemic. Showbie plans to expand sales and marketing and accelerate feature development, including launching a new Android app on Google Play and improving administrator-focused features and reporting, and to grow teams in sales, marketing, and engineering in Edmonton and Toronto. The company was capital-efficient and profitable before its Series A and has scaled staff from 25 to 62 employees since the initial Series A investment. Showbie provides a classroom workflow platform that bundles a variety of educational tools in one app to increase teacher productivity, help identify struggling students, and let administrators track learning objectives. The product lets teachers distribute documents, images, instructions, and feedback, and access preloaded assignments and lesson plans. During the COVID-19 pandemic Showbie added a video chat function and donated over $1 million USD worth of software licenses to schools and districts to support remote learning. The company says it has over 3 million educators registered for its products globally. Showbie plans to use its newest capital to improve digital communication on the platform and to build products that help teachers, schools, and districts better understand student engagement. Founded in 2012 by Colin Bramm and Roy Pombeiro, the company is based in Edmonton. Showbie provides a simple workflow for teachers and students to assign, submit, and annotate homework digitally, including photo and PDF annotation via its iOS app. The company emphasizes simplicity and was built in close collaboration with teachers to reduce grading time and enable richer feedback. Showbie offers a freemium model that lets teachers start with a free edition and upgrades to a Pro version and paid subscriptions for additional apps and products in the long run. The service is available in 10 languages and is used at 17,000 institutions with more than 1.2 million students and teachers. Showbie reports adding about 900 schools and 140,000 students per month. The company plans to add a markbook and improved annotation features, including voice notes, before the next school year. Financially, Showbie has raised a total of $2.3 million in seed funding.

Total raised

$12M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Feb 2021