ThinkCERCA, founded in 2012 and based in Chicago, provides personalized literacy solutions that help teachers across the curriculum increase college-, career-, and civic-readiness through intensive close reading and argumentative writing instruction. The company has developed interactive lesson types designed to prepare students and will implement a product-led growth strategy over the next 12 to 18 months. As part of that plan ThinkCERCA will launch 7,000 new differentiated lessons for grades 3–12 to give students discrete instruction and practice in critical literacy skills. The company also plans to expand its differentiation offerings to meet the needs of more learners, including adults, in response to teacher demand. ThinkCERCA was founded by Eileen Murphy Buckley and Abby Ross and emphasizes scaling curriculum and classroom impact. ThinkCERCA is a Chicago-based provider of web-based instructional software that helps educators differentiate instruction and build analytical reading and writing skills across subject matter. Led by founder and CEO Eileen Murphy Buckley, the platform is offered as a subscription used by 215 schools and 50,000 students in 25 states, while a free version reaches 17,000 classrooms serving 115,000 students across all 50 states and 112 countries. The company raised $3.2M in a Series A round led by the Follett Knowledge Fund with participation from Math Venture Partners, Amicus Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital and Chuck Templeton. ThinkCERCA intends to use the funds to add new features to its platform, including resources for district-level administrators. It also signed a strategic partnership with Follett Corporation to expand access to its web-based academic reading and writing instruction. Previous milestones include graduating from the inaugural Impact Engine Accelerator in December 2012 and winning the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Literacy Courseware Challenge in July 2013.

Total raised

$13M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Sep 2017