LearnLaunch Accelerator Drives Growth for Edtech Portfolio Companies

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Oct 27, 2014) - LearnLaunch Accelerator, Boston's education technology startup program (formerly known as LearnLaunchX), announced today that it has assisted thirteen emerging education technology portfolio companies in bringing new educational technologies to market that are now reaching over 40,000 teachers and 300,000 students. Since participating in LearnLaunch's premier program, these early stage start-ups are now successfully implementing business and growth strategies, creating strategic partnerships and moving their ideas from prototypes to award-winning products with market traction.

"Edtech startup products must be razor focused on pain points in the education system and have a clear route to market, " said Jean Hammond, superangel investor and LearnLaunch's co-founder. "Our companies have benefited from not only from our world class personalized curriculum but also direct access to the rich edtech ecosystem in Boston to turn their innovations and ideas into viable businesses."

Companies interested in participating in the 3rd LearnLaunch Accelerator program to be held this winter can submit an application until October 31, 2014. The highly selective three month Boston-based residential program provides chosen cohorts with seed funding, an unmatched team of edtech mentors, intensive coaching and all the tools needed to advance the product and market development process, and to learn how to navigate the education industry and successfully grow their business.

Past LearnLaunch Accelerator portfolio companies include three created by educators, five focused on higher education, and eight focused on K-12. The companies hail from Boston, New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Belgium. Recent highlights include:

• eduCanon: producing a tool that enables every educator to flip his classroom, has 40,000 teachers on the platform with 20% actively building new lessons each month. In the last six months, eduCanon was named best startup in the Education category for the 1776 Global Challenge Cup, earned the McGraw-Hill Open Education Resource Prize at the 2014 Milken-Penn GSE Education Competition, won the ISTE 2014 Edtech Startup Pitch Fest and raised a seed angel round.
  
  
• Listen Current (formerly Listen Edition): has 35,000 middle-schoolers across the country learning science and social studies lessons through public radio stories curated by their platform. The startup has 11 district partnerships, a content agreement with NPR and was named "2014 Innovative Education Technology of the Year" by MassTLC. Listen Current is closing up funding from New Schools Venture Seed funds and the Launchpad Venture Group.
  
  
• Gradeable: offers easy online grading and assessment tools for teachers, has 1,000 classrooms using its platform, secured a major statewide deal in Connecticut and partnered with Teach for America (TFA) to bring innovative learning tools to its classrooms. Gradeable has raised a seed round of angel funding.
  
  
• uConnect: creator of platforms for college and university career services, serves seven universities, with over 50,000 students active on the platform. The company recently secured the top prize of $50k at TechOut, 2014 New Hampshire's largest startup competition.
  
  
• CueThink: which makes mathematical problem solving social, recently released its product and is being used by 120 teachers. CueThink has been awarded NSF Phase 1 and 2 SBIR grants totaling more than $850k.
  
  
• Hstry: creator of a learning tool that enables teachers and students to construct interactive historical timelines for the digital classroom, was recently named the "Number One S'Cool Tool" by EdSurge. Hstry has over 1,600 users in its beta and plans to launch in early 2015.
  
  
• Campuscene: provides an information-sharing platform for colleges and universities, has five higher ed customers. The company also recently won the education category prize at Denver's Challenge Cup.
  
  

LearnLaunch Institute also recently announced that its annual conference will be held on January 23-24, 2015. This year's event -- Across Boundaries: Delivering on Edtech's Promise -- is expected to bring more than 600 participants to hosting partner Harvard Business School.

LearnLaunch Accelerator
LearnLaunch Accelerator (formerly known as LearnLaunchX) is Boston's edtech startup program. After a highly selective application process, LearnLaunch Accelerator provides the most promising edtech startups worldwide with seed funding, an unmatched team of mentors, sector focused curriculum, intensive coaching and all the tools needed to grow a successful edtech startup.

LearnLaunch
LearnLaunch is dedicated to connecting, supporting, and growing the education technology ecosystem to drive innovation and transform learning. It offers a vibrant community, educational events, a collaborative co-working space, and a selective accelerator program to promote the growth of the education technology sector in greater Boston, a world education hub. For more information, visit www.learnlaunch.com and follow us on Twitter at @learnlaunch.

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