Participated · Series A · Sep 2019

Amira Learning develops an AI-powered literacy tutor that listens to students reading aloud, detects mispronunciations, skipped words and other errors, and provides real-time corrective feedback. The product is grounded in roughly two decades of research and pilots that the article says have shown users making two to three times the typical progress on standard reading assessments in some cases. Amira offers teacher-facing analytics to support guided reading, can flag students who may be at risk for language learning disorders for further screening, and emphasizes privacy by treating data as belonging to the district. After offering the product free during the pandemic, the company has hundreds of districts provisionally on board and a distribution partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is also an investor. The company is using a newly raised $11 million to scale the app, convert free users into paying customers, expand capabilities into middle school, build out management tools, and launch a parent-focused app. The article highlights Amira’s focus on designing for real-world classroom conditions and teacher workflows and mentions partnerships and celebrity support (NFL player Brennan Scarlett covering costs for 100 students) to aid adoption. Amira Learning builds a speech‑powered reading assessment and practice tool that listens to K–3 students read aloud, detects mispronunciations, offers prompts, and reports indicators of reading disorders such as dyslexia. The company licensed its core algorithms from Carnegie Mellon University and its assessment content from the University of Houston and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; the professors who created the work serve as advisers and consultants. Amira is currently used in about 20 U.S. school districts and sells Amira Assessment for about $5 per student per year, a Dyslexia Screener for about $2.50 per student, and interactive Amira Practice for about $10 per user. The startup has about 15 full‑time employees and plans to hire additional data scientists and customer support specialists. Leadership plans include international expansion, development of a direct‑to‑consumer product, and adding Spanish language support. Founded in March 2017 (originally as Lexa Reading) and based in San Francisco, the company raised new capital to scale its footprint.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2018

Writable, founded in 2016 by CEO Andrew Goldman and based in Palo Alto, offers an authentic writing practice and feedback platform for schools. Its platform provides a three-part feedback engine (peer-, self-, and teacher-review) and a set of common skill-focused writing assignments. The product is designed to help teachers save time on preparation and feedback while scaffolding and motivating students. By the 2017-2018 school year Writable had been used in over 1,000 schools. The company is expanding distribution through a deep integration with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to connect cross-curriculum writing practice to humanities instruction. Writable says it will use recent funding to expand product development and business reach.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2016

Osmo is a Palo Alto startup that integrates physical puzzle pieces, board games and blocks with iPad mobile games and content. The company launched in 2013 as Tangible Play and uses the iPad camera in apps like Tangrams to recognize how children arrange pieces and respond in real time. Osmo’s products are used in 22,000 schools globally and are sold in 50 countries. The company will use the $24 million funding to adapt popular titles — Words, Tangram, Newton and Numbers — for the iPhone. It is also partnering with Sesame Workshop and Mattel to develop new character-driven content and has a pending engagement with a research firm to study how its toys impact learning. CEO Pramod Sharma said teachers already recognize the educational value and the company plans to leverage partnerships and product expansion to grow reach. Osmo builds a hardware-based gaming kit that attaches a reflective camera and stand to an iPad and uses physical game pieces (letter tiles, puzzle shapes) to combine real-world play with iPad apps. Its initial titles include Tangram, Words, and Newton, and the company offers customization via my.playosmo.com where users can upload images and word lists. Founded in early 2013 by Pramod Sharma and Jérôme Scholler, Osmo has sold $2 million in pre-orders, including purchases from over 2,000 schools, and hundreds of teachers from over 150 schools are using the product. The kit sold for $49 on pre-order, retails for $99 and is currently sold for $79. Osmo's products are available online and are being rolled into 284 Apple stores in the U.S. and Canada as well as Marbles Toy Stores. The company plans to open its platform to third-party developers and allow further customizations as part of its longer-term roadmap. Tangible Play develops iPad accessories and software that mix augmented reality, animated graphics, and audio with traditional board game elements. The product uses a simple stand with a mirrored cap that lets the iPad camera see the playing surface and recognize physical pieces via computer vision. The company launched two titles at TechCrunch Disrupt — a word-guessing game and a puzzle game called Tangram — and demoed strong engagement, including a mother and daughter playing for an hour. Founders Pramod Sharma and Jerome Scholler bring experience from Google, NVIDIA, LucasArts, and Ubisoft, and the startup was part of Stanford’s StartX accelerator. Tangible Play has focused on games initially but says the platform could enable many non-game applications in the future. The team is running a beta signup and has raised early funding to support the launch.