Follett Corporation
3 Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 200, Westchester, IL, 60154, United States
Overview
Follett has been a trusted partner to Pre-K and K-12 schools, districts, and college campuses for more than 140 years, taking care of the critical details that make it easier for schools to run, teachers to teach and students to learn. Every day, they serve over half of the students in the United States, and work with 80,000 schools as a leading provider of education technology, services and print and digital content. They're higher education's largest campus retailer and a hub for school spirit and community as they operate nearly 1,200 local campus stores and over 1,600 virtual stores across the continent. Their vantage point and presence in the market – from early childhood all the way through higher education – gives them a unique perspective to know what teachers are teaching and how students are learning; to know what professors are adopting; to know what college students are buying, and to know how they are acquiring content and interacting with new technologies and retail environments available to them. They're more than just a book company, they're a gateway to knowledge—harnessing their insights to help improve student outcomes and shape the future of education as they know it.
- Total investments
- 2
- Lead investments
- 2
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 0
Sector focus
- Education
- Language Learning
- Training
Investment portfolio
- ThinkCERCA
Led · Series A · Mar 2015
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.
- Campus Quad
Led · Seed · Oct 2013
CampusQuad offers a mobile-first communication and engagement platform providing students 24/7, real-time access to campus events, clubs and services. The platform gives Student Affairs practitioners real-time analytics to assess student engagement and program effectiveness. The company closed a $5 million Series A financing to accelerate its plans. CampusQuad will use the funds to invest in product development, scale business operations and drive adoption across North American campuses. Frances Cairns is the founder and CEO and the company is based in San Carlos, Calif. Campus Quad is a mobile-first platform designed for creating and consuming content within higher-education communities. The service targets students and campus communities with tools for content creation and consumption on mobile devices. The company is based in San Francisco, CA. On October 31, 2013, Follett Corporation announced a $1 million strategic investment in Campus Quad. The financing is described as a strategic round and Follett is the sole investor reported in the announcement. No operating metrics, prior rounds, or use-of-proceeds were disclosed in the article.
Team
No current team members are available.