AltSchool
| Private | |
| Industry | Education |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | San Francisco, United States |
Area served | United States |
Key people |
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| Website | altschool.com |
AltSchool is an educational startup, founded in 2014.[1]
Founding
AltSchool's founder and CEO, Max Ventilla, left his previous career at Google in 2013. He wanted to work in education and in 2014 raised $33M of venture capital funding to start AltSchool. The Series A financing was led by Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, with follow-on investment from First Round Capital and Harrison Metal and participation from John Doerr, Jonathan Sackler, Learn Capital, and Omidyar Network.[1]
Series B
In 2015, AltSchool raised a $100M Series B round of funding. The round was led by Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz , with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan also participating through their Silicon Valley Community Foundation.[2][3]
In 2016, the company hired Coddy Johnson, former executive of video game company Activision.[4]
Schools
The company has created a series of micro schools that focused on personalized learning, where children are involved in setting the projects they work on.[5] Students and teachers create individual "playlists" of tasks and projects for each student. Their progress is streamed to parents using a portal app.[6] By 2016, six schools had been opened in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Brooklyn.[7][8]
Software platform
AltSchool aims to create a software platform that both private and public schools can use to provide personalized learning in their classrooms. The platform, currently under development, includes both pedagogical and school management features.[3]
References
- 1 2 Leena Rao (March 18, 2014). "Former Googler's AltSchool Raises $33M From Founders Fund And A16Z To Reimagine Primary Education".
- ↑ "With $100 Million From Silicon Valley Elite, AltSchool Takes New Approach To Classroom Learning". Forbes. May 4, 2016.
- 1 2 "Mark Zuckerberg Joins AltSchool's Backers". Fast Company. May 4, 2016.
- ↑ Mary Jo Madda (April 21, 2016). "AltSchool Pulls New COO From 'Call of Duty' Video Game Company". EdSurge.
- ↑ Hope King (March 20, 2016). "A morning at the AltSchool, an education startup that Silicon Valley is crazy about". CNN.
- ↑ Adam Lashinsky (March 7, 2016). "How AltSchool Experiments in Education". Fortune.
- ↑ Rebecca Mead (March 7, 2016). "Learn Different: Silicon Valley disrupts education". New Yorker.
- ↑ Gina Bellafante (December 4, 2015). "The Bold Idea Behind a Small Brooklyn School". New York Times.