Dunce Deals 9/18/20 - Immersity, Nexford, Tocca, and Emile
Hi, I'm John Danner, Managing Director of Dunce Capital. Dunce Deals is my look at the most interesting deals and news from edtech and the future of work. In the last four years, I have made over two dozen pre-seed investments in the space including Lambda School, where I am on the board, Outschool, Prenda, and Supernow. Before Dunce, I founded three companies, NetGravity (IPO), Rocketship Public Schools (12k students) and Zeal (sold 2018).
Thoughts
I hope your week was great. Have you upgraded your Zoom setup yet? Don't be the last one :)
News
There's a lot going on in education this week. A few great pieces in case you missed them:
Austen's 20VC episode from this morning, thanks for the shout outs Austen!
And congrats to SV Academy for launching their sales courses in partnership with Salesforce and Coursera!
And congrats to Outschool, for, well, everything!
Deals
Immersity
Description: Short global immersion courses in partnership with universities
Website: immersityed.com
Founder: Dale Jarosz
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-jarosz-51281738
Email: jaroszdd@umich.edu
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: Immersity realized that short focused programs leading to university certificates are valuable to employees trying to level up and employers trying to retain. They are still figuring it out, but smart founders working on it.
Nexford
Description: $100/mo mastery based online bachelors degrees
Website: nexford.org
Founder: Fadl Al Tarzi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ftarzi/
Email: faltarzi@nexford.org
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: A fully accedited online university focused on Nigeria. Nexford is a deal I almost funded a few months back, but my check size was too small for their burn. They focused on Nigeria and are pushing burn down well now.
Tokka
Description: Live enrichment classes for kids.
Website: tokka.app
Founder: Sonya Trachsel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonyamt/
Email: sonya@tokka.app
Stage: Pre-Seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: Yes, there are a tidal wave of outschool aspirants right now, but Sonya is another sharp founder trying to figure out how to help parents during Covid.
Emile
Description: An academic fully online private high school.
Website: hiemile.com
Founder: Felix Ruano
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixruano/
Email: felix@hiemile.com
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: Felix is a sharp entrepreneur and had built a large academic tutoring business before Emile. When Covid hit, he dropped what he was doing and built a school.
Here is the complete list of Dunce Investments:
Mystery Science - purchased by Discovery Education 2020
Swing - on-demand talent for the education market
Epic! - the best children’s books digitally for every classroom and every home
Kunduz - the leader in test prep for Turkey
Erudifi - loans for students going to vocational schools and higher ed in SE Asia.
Outschool - the best marketplace of live small classes for your k-12 student
Juni - Coding, Math, and English instruction 1-1 and small group
Lambda School - teaching students to code and get jobs in great companies
LingoKids - English learning for young children
Padlet - a modern document creation and sharing platform
TinyCare - micro-daycare centers
SV Academy - teaching students tech sales and getting them jobs in great companies
Sora - a better high school, completely online
Prenda - micro-schools to unlock your child’s talent
Galileo - the first online world school
Beanstalk - live classes for young children
GetSetup - live social network for seniors
Primer - live academic and social network for homeschoolers
Contra - social network for freelancers
Fourthrev - run digital bootcamps for universities focused on in-demand job skills
Marketerhire - marketing experts from that you can rent
Abwaab - the best test prep platform in MENA
Supernow - live classes and clubs for elementary and middle schoolers
Maven - the leader in cohort-based courses
Prendea - live classes and social network for students in LatAm
Kritik - peer grading for higher ed
Major League Hacking - hackathons and fellowships for university students
Reforge - live classes on Growth for upskilling professionals
Synthesis School - learn problem-solving by playing video games
AI Camp - AI for ages 13-18 from Stanford pHDs.
Bindr - Silent study groups online.
The Explanation Company - Google for kids.