Dunce Deals 9/27/20 - Shift and ChatClass
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
Happy second week of clean air here in the Bay Area! Sorry for the delay in this week's dunce deals, I needed to soak it in yesterday.
Deals
This week is only two deals, but they are good ones. Let me know what you are seeing out there, and I'm always happy to help if you want a warm referral to the below.
Shift
Description: Warehouse, Logistics & Assembly Work Reinvented
Website: shiftone.net
Founder: Jason Radisson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/radisson
Email: jason@shiftone.net
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: Former Uber Ops people working on a company to allow the Shopify world to compete with Amazon.
ChatClass
Description: english learning through whatsapp in Brazil
Website: chatclass.ai
Founder: Jan Krutzinna
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jankrutzinna/
Email: jan@chatclass.com.br
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: With remote work making it more viable for tech employees to get jobs in the US if their English is solid, everything in the English learning space has grown significantly. Chatclass has serious AI chops, partnered with Google Research. 100k monthly actives and $50k MRR. This deal has a lead, so if interested, this is the time to jump in.
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.