• Inkling Systems

  Participated · Series C · Jul 2013

  Inkling provides a mobile communications platform that lets enterprises communicate with deskless workers. The platform enables measurement of employee engagement and compliance via real-time updates and built-in analytics. It delivers mission-critical information through video, interactive images, dynamic documents, and alerts. Customers include organizations in the insurance, retail, restaurant, pharmaceutical, energy, and manufacturing industries. Founded in 2009 and led by CEO Matt MacInnis, the company recently raised $25m in a Series E. Inkling says it will use the funding to expand product and sales efforts globally and has raised $95m in total to date. Inkling builds Inkling Habitat, a cloud-based, enterprise-grade digital publishing platform that helps publishers convert and deliver mobile- and web-friendly textbooks and academic content. The company pivoted from an initial focus on digitizing textbooks for the "Tablet Era" to offering publishers a WordPress-like environment to create next-generation digital learning products. Inkling announced multi-year strategic partnerships with Pearson and Elsevier (Reed Elsevier), with Elsevier set to convert over 650 medical titles into digital content through Habitat. The company plans to expand its library by more than 1,000 new academic and medical titles in the coming weeks and is in talks with additional top publishers. Inkling has added three key executives to support growth, including Gus Gostyla (former Flipboard head of business development) and Stephanie Prior (former GoodData and Google finance and operations exec). Financially, Inkling raised a $16M Series C and says the funding is intended to move the company toward lasting profitability; the round brings total capital raised to around $48M. Inkling rebuilds textbooks into interactive, software-like learning experiences on the iPad, incorporating rich interactivity, 3-D models, self-quizzes, and real-time note-sharing for students and professors. The company partners with major publishers to convert leading textbooks and distributes chapters through its online store, with individual chapters available for as low as $2.99. Inkling presents its platform as a new way to create, distribute, and consume interactive learning content beyond flat digital reproductions. The company says the textbook market is headed for rapid change and aims to capture that opportunity with improved digital experiences. The recent financing is intended to accelerate development of Inkling’s digital textbook experience and key technologies. Inkling is based in San Francisco and is backed by Sequoia Capital. Inkling develops interactive digital textbooks that incorporate multimedia (video, 3‑D objects), quizzes, collaborative note‑sharing, and in‑content social interactions. Its sync technology lets students share notes and highlights in real time and see comments from peers and professors alongside their own annotations. The company launched last year and has an iPad app that showcased a photography textbook with over 100 videos, interactive diagrams, workshop videos, high‑resolution images, and the full text. Inkling has struck distribution and content deals with major higher‑education publishers including McGraw‑Hill, Pearson, John Wiley & Sons, W. W. Norton, and Wolters Kluwer. As part of the recent financing, McGraw‑Hill and Pearson committed to build interactive editions of top titles for the Inkling platform, including McGraw‑Hill’s top 100 undergraduate titles and medical/reference content and Pearson’s MBA curriculum and select undergraduate arts and sciences titles. The company declined to disclose the exact amount of the latest financing. Inkling offers an interactive digital textbook platform that embeds multimedia, real-time collaboration, and social features directly within textbook content. The platform launched publicly alongside an iPad app available in the App Store. Inkling’s content supports 3-D objects, video, quizzes and in-content communication, and its sync technology lets students share notes, highlights and see comments from peers and professors in real time. The company has secured content-development partnerships with major textbook publishers including Cengage Learning, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill and Wolters Kluwer. Inkling aims to help publishers add interactivity to textbook content and capitalize on tablet adoption in education. Financially, the startup announced an undisclosed Series A led by Sequoia Capital and had previously raised seed funding from Mitch Kapor and Ram Shriram; it also added Peter Currie and Sequoia partner Bryan Schreier to its board.

No current team members are available.