• Packback

  Participated · Equity · Sep 2017

  Packback provides an AI-enabled platform that delivers inquiry-based online discussion (Packback Questions) and long-form writing support (Packback Deep Dives). Its proprietary AI acts as a digital writing assistant, giving individualized feedback to students and scaffolded support to make grading more seamless for educators. The platform is grounded in cognitive frameworks such as Bloom's Taxonomy and Self Determination Theory and uses models developed over more than six years to coach students without writing for them. Packback serves over 1.5 million students and more than 10,000 instructors across thousands of K-12 and higher-education courses. Company-cited research indicates improved academic outcomes, increased writing confidence, and instructor-reported improvements in writing quality among users. The company says it is positioned to meet urgent market demand and aims to expand the delivery of timely, high-quality feedback at scale with PSG's support. Packback is an education technology company offering Packback Questions, an AI-supported online discussion platform that supports student curiosity, communication and critical thinking skills. The platform delivers a scalable asynchronous discussion experience using AI for automation of moderation and coaching, features that allow professors to scale their impact and provide service and support. The company raised $2.5M to maintain its growth as it expands its user base and team, with plans to create 45 new jobs. Packback added more than 25 employees in 2018 and expected to grow to 100 employees by the end of 2019. Leadership includes CEO Mike Shannon, CPO Jessica Tenuta, VP of Sales Roberto Torreggiani, and Head of Engineering Dr. Craig M. Booth. Board member Dr. James Caras joined the company's board following the funding announcement. Packback is a Chicago-based developer of an AI-powered online discussion platform used by over 100 U.S. universities. Its platform enables instructors to make student academic discourse a core part of curriculum and coursework and supports the Socratic Method in large lectures and online classes. Packback’s algorithms analyze students’ written questions and responses to quantify and improve behaviors like critical thinking and curiosity. The product incorporates gamification elements, including points and leaderboards, to drive engagement. The company uses a human-assisted approach to AI, training models and data sets with feedback from college professors. Packback recently raised $4.2M in a Series A led by University Ventures. Packback builds artificial intelligence that analyzes students' written questions and essay answers to quantify and improve student success metrics such as critical thinking, soft skills and curiosity. Its product, Packback Questions, is a smart online discussion platform powered by that AI where students engage in rigorous academic discourse as part of coursework. The company plans to use recent funding to continue scaling nationally and expects to pursue a Series A. Packback was founded by Jessica Tenuta and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The article reports a $1.5M financing that the company intends to supplement with additional capital in an upcoming round.

• Campus Quad

  Led · Series A · Feb 2015

  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.

• Querium

  Led · Series A · Jan 2015

  Querium develops the StepWise Virtual Tutor, an AI-powered, mobile learning platform that delivers personalized, bite-sized STEM lessons with expert-system, step-by-step tutoring assistance available 24/7. The platform targets digital-native students preparing for college and beyond. Led by founder & CEO Kent Fuka and co-founder & CMO Patti Smith, the company emphasizes personalized mastery of STEM skills. Querium raised $3.2M in a Series B and has $4M in total financing to date. The company says it will use the new funds to expand operations. Education-industry veteran Jamie Caras joined Querium’s board in conjunction with the round. Querium builds cloud-hosted, mobile learning software centered on its StepWise Virtual Tutor, which provides personalized, adaptive tutoring and grading-assistant capabilities for math and science. The StepWise engine lets students show work, intervenes on mistakes, generates hints, and can provide partial credit plus fine-grained analysis of problem-solving. Querium licenses its AI products to online learning solution providers and has a distribution partnership with Sapling Learning (a division of Macmillan Publishers). Beginning fall 2015, thousands of Texas high school students will use Querium’s MathBooster for STAAR Algebra 1 EOC featuring StepWise. The company was founded in January 2013 and aims to help 60 million students master critical math and science skills. Querium says it will use newly secured funds to significantly expand its A.I. capabilities and bolster business development activities. Querium develops an artificial intelligence-based StepWise Virtual Tutor that operates in tutoring mode and grading-assistant mode to help students solve STEM problems and provide partial-credit grading and analytics. The StepWise engine features handwriting recognition to give students a natural experience similar to writing on paper, and it generates hints and intervenes when students make mistakes. Querium’s product line includes Querium MathBooster and TSI Math Prep, and the company has pursued partnerships to expand distribution. In October (year in article), Querium announced a strategic partnership with Sapling Learning to bring StepWise and MathBooster to 1,200 Texas school districts beginning fall 2015. Querium says it designs its cloud-hosted, mobile learning software for digital natives and targets U.S. middle school, high school and college students. The company was founded in January 2013 and is based in Austin, Texas.

• Synapsify

  Participated · Seed · Feb 2013

  Synapsify provides a text analytics and search tool that leverages patented and artificially intelligent software to prioritize and interpret written content. The company offers an API product and has just launched a web-based virtual analyst product, Synapsify Core, to complement that offering. Founded in 2012 by CEO and co-founder Stephen Candelmo, Synapsify targets organizations seeking to extract insight and recommendations from their written content. The recent funding will be used to support continued business growth and product development. To date, Synapsify has raised approximately $1.5m. Synapsify is a tech analytics startup offering patented text analytics and search technology that reads and evaluates written content across multiple dimensions. Its platform can reveal the quality, balance, credibility and quotability of content, index and match material against other written content or custom indexes, and surface actionable insights. The company measures overall content value and can compare content quality and potential traffic against competing pieces. Use cases called out include forum moderation, helping publishers produce better books, and giving governments clearer insight into social networks. Synapsify plans to announce its API and first set of enterprise customers in early Q2. The startup recently closed a $600,000 seed round. CEO and co-founder Stephen Caldelmo says the technology goes beyond simple keyword mentions or one-dimensional sentiment to bring new value to overwhelmed content ecosystems.

No current team members are available.