The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Oct 2022

Odyssey builds an end-to-end public fund disbursement and e-commerce platform that helps states run education savings account and school-choice programs. Its product manages applications, real-time identity verification, a state-regulated private marketplace, payment processing, customer support and data analysis. The company touts sub-second identity verification to speed eligibility decisions versus the typical 30–60 day process. Odyssey currently manages more than 130,000 students across Iowa, Missouri and Idaho and is paid by states typically on a per-student basis. Revenue grew threefold over the past year. With new funding the company plans key leadership hires, more engineers and geographic expansion into additional states, and it sees potential to offer additional state programs via its digital wallet and marketplace features. Odyssey is a technology platform designed to support administration of state programs for families, vendors, and state leaders by combining an enrollment and payment platform with user experience and on-the-ground engagement. The company pairs its digital tools with in-person engagement to boost participation in programs. Odyssey was selected to administer Idaho’s $50 million Empowering Parents grant program and, in the first 30 days of implementation, processed and verified over 42,500 student applications from 19,000 parents. The company plans to use new funding for product development, to accelerate hiring to meet demand, and to expand its services to additional states. Its team includes seasoned educators and developers from companies such as Google, Lyft, AngelList, and Flexport, plus an in-house team of ESA and microgrant experts and parents who use these programs. Joseph Connor leads the company as founder and CEO.

Participated · Series D · Feb 2022

Paper partners with school districts to deliver 1:1 tutoring, providing students with 24/7 live help and writing feedback. The platform gives teachers insights to address individual learning gaps and supplies administrators with actionable data for strategic decisions. Paper offers multilingual tutors across content areas and grade levels to support diverse student populations. The company supports some of the largest U.S. school districts, including Clark County (NV), Hillsborough County (FL), Boston Public Schools (MA), Atlanta Public Schools (GA), Columbus City Schools (OH), and Santa Ana Unified (CA). Led by CEO Philip Cutler, Paper focuses on expanding district partnerships and scaling its tutoring and analytics services. Paper sells tutoring software to K-12 schools that lets students request live tutor help on demand, delivered 24/7 across four languages and roughly 200 subject areas. Its tutors are employed as part-time workers and the company emphasizes professional standards and district-friendly workflows so teachers can view student needs. Paper has scaled operationally — tutors grew from about 100 to 1,000 in the last year and headcount rose from 30 to 130 employees. The company reported 40x revenue growth over the past two years, driven largely by strong renewals and district network effects. CEO Philip Cutler positions Paper as an alternate pathway for teachers and argues districts are increasingly receptive to new educational tools. The product emphasizes fast, chat-based tutoring with whiteboard features rather than traditional long-form Zoom tutoring. Paper was founded in 2014 and is based in Montreal. Paper (fka GradeSlam) offers an education support system used by schools and districts to boost student outcomes and assist teachers. The company was founded by McGill University graduates Philip Cutler and Roberto Cipriani. Paper has partnerships with multiple U.S. districts, including Irvine Unified, Springfield Public Schools, Sequoia Union High School District, Denver Public Schools, and Tustin Unified. The company says the new funding will be used to accelerate rapid growth of the business. The article does not disclose specific operating metrics or revenue figures. Paper is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2021

EveryDay Labs is a Redwood City, CA–based company led by CEO Emily Bailard that uses behavioral and data science plus family engagement to reduce chronic absenteeism. Its core product is research-based communication tools that help districts identify and support students. The company says its tools also enable district leaders to address learning recovery, enrollment, and connect vulnerable students and families to resources. EveryDay Labs works with thousands of schools. The company plans to use the new funding to scale its research-based communication tools. The article does not disclose revenue or other financial metrics.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2021

Inspirit builds a 3D, low-code virtual science platform (built atop Unity) that lets students and teachers create and experience STEM simulations, from DNA replication to projectile motion. The company offers a microlesson approach with pre-made tracks (e.g., the moon, a eukaryotic cell) that teachers can augment with annotations, quiz questions and voice-overs. Founders Aditya Vishwanath and Amrutha Vasan position the product as a Minecraft-like creator experience for education rather than a passive simulator. Inspirit is hardware-agnostic by design, is experimenting with Oculus Quest integrations, and has not yet widely enabled VR. After launching a waitlist in September, the startup attracted 50,000 K-12 users to its private beta but has not launched publicly. The team says it must prove learning outcomes and efficiency before broadly selling to end users. The company plans to use its recent funding to test business models, pursue monetization, and hire a team.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2018

Founded in 2015 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Swing Education operates an online staffing marketplace that connects qualified substitute teachers with K–12 schools and districts. The company streamlines substitute hiring and placement through technology and support services to keep student learning on track during absences. Swing serves thousands of school districts across California, Arizona, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., and reports millions of absence days filled to date. Management says it is expanding nationwide to address acute substitute-teacher shortages and increase district coverage. To support that expansion and provide liquidity for seasonally driven demand, Swing secured a non-dilutive $20 million growth loan commitment from Runway Growth Capital. The financing is structured to support scaling while preserving equity, according to the company and lender statements. Swing Education operates an online staffing marketplace that matches K-12 schools with substitute teachers. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company pairs a technology platform with dedicated success teams to improve the substitute-teacher experience and simplify school staffing. Swing serves over 2,800 partner schools across California, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., and in the 2022–23 school year supported filling over one million instructional hours with substitute teachers. To date the company reports more than 300,000 absence days filled. Swing emphasizes treating substitutes better to attract more individuals to the profession and offers upskilling and pathways into teaching. It plans to use new funding to grow its substitute pool and school partnerships in existing regions and to expand into new regions in 2024. Swing Education is an on-demand marketplace that connects schools with qualified substitute teachers. The platform allows registered substitutes to access daily requests from hundreds of schools and serves a pool of both veteran educators and newcomers. Swing has growing communities of substitutes in California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. Nearly 50% of its teachers come from under-represented communities. The company plans to use the funds to raise the prominence of substitute teaching, offer resources to promote excellence in substitute instruction and expand into new regions. Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Mike Teng, Swing is based in San Mateo, California and recently raised $15m in a Series B round.