StudySmarter Secures $15 Million in Series A Funding

StudySmarter, a German leading edtech startup based in Munich, has today closed a $15 million Series A round to globally expand its learning app. The round was led by Owl Ventures, one of the world's leaders in edtech, along with Left Lane Capital who is also co-investing. Individual investors Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen and Dieter von Holtzbrinck also participated in the round.

Founded in 2017, StudySmarter develops an intelligent platform for lifelong learning, first published in 2018 and is used by over 1.5 million German-speaking users in Europe, including higher education students and K12 learners. The platform’s unique approach to learning utilizes AI-powered natural language processing (NLP) to create “text-based interactive custom courses” while tracking the learners’ progress.

The app offers an all-in-one environment with no extras to download, enabling students to manage all their revision in one place. The transition to other languages through its NLP models can be made without new training data, making it “scalable in any language”. The company claims that 94% of the app's users achieve better grades.

Co-Founder Maurice Khudhir stated, "More than one in three students drop out because of challenges they face in their learning process. That’s why we founded StudySmarter as an intelligent platform that supports learners individually throughout their entire learning journey. Our platform has the power to enable access to digital education and ensure successful outcomes for hundreds of millions of learners worldwide. With Owl and Left Lane, we have found the perfect partners who share our vision to become the world’s central hub for learning."

Anyone wishing to improve their learning skills on any topic can do so using the app by submitting their study goals. Users can also contribute their content to create courses, with StudySmarter’s algorithm turning their source material into interactive study aids, functioning as both “a content marketplace and a learning platform”. One of the platform’s unique functionalities is that users can share their content with other learners, providing access to over 25 million pieces of content (with 80% of content created being shared).

“StudySmarter’s award-winning platform revolutionizes the learning journey and provides students the ability to be successful and achieve their learning goals,” as stated by Jenny Wang of Owl Ventures. “Today, more than a quarter of all higher ed and A-level students in Germany are on StudySmarter’s platform, and we’re incredibly excited to partner with this team as they continue to scale and expand into new markets.”

Source: TechCrunch
“StudySmarter books $15M for a global 'personalized learning' push.”