StudySmarter, a Munich-based EdTech company that digitizes the entire learning process of every learner, has raised an additional $16M (approx €13.8 million) in its Series A round from Goodwater Capital.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to double down its global expansion and accelerate its ambitions to become the world’s best, and largest content-agnostic learning platform.
Founded in 2018 by Christian Felgenhauer, Maurice Khudhir, Till Söhlemann, and Simon Hohentanner, StudySmarter turns any kind of text or content into an interactive course generated in part through the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP). It helps learners, professionals, and content publishers create their content, such as lecture notes, summaries, flashcards, exercises, and much more.
Since the launch of the platform, users of StudySmarter have created and shared more than 50 million learning materials, which is growing by 5 million every month. The startup has recently more than tripled its workforce, growing from 70 to over 300 employees.
Talking about the company, Maurice Khudhir, Co-founder of StudySmarter, said,
"In just two years, StudySmarter has proven it has the power to enable access to digital education for hundreds of millions of learners across the globe. The way the platform has been embraced and used by our community is a testament to just how important and necessary our content-agnostic, lifelong learning approach is. It also shows that the issues experienced with learning and access are universal."
StudySmarter’s algorithm analyses the user’s pattern to build highly tailored courses, including automatically generating flashcards, creating a plan, prioritizing areas where there are learning gaps, scheduling calendars based on exam dates, sending reminders to study, and rewarding learning with badges and achievements.
Eric Kim, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Goodwater Capital, said,
"It takes a special kind of company, with a special kind of team, to develop and expand as quickly, and as successfully, as StudySmarter has. We knew from the moment we first heard about StudySmarter that it was on course to change education and global learning as we know it and we’re thrilled to now join Christian, Simon, Till, and Maurice in this journey."
StudySmarter has gained 1 million new users in its first year. It has nearly doubled this user base over the past four months and rolled out the platform globally to more regions including the US, UK, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, Canada, Ireland, among others. The company is the digital content provider of many renowned publishers, including Pearson, and is used by global giants such as Amazon and BMW. StudySmarter plans to announce new partnerships in the coming months.
Earlier this year, StudySmarter had raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Owl Ventures and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Lars Fjelsoe-Nielsen (formerly WhatsApp, Uber, and Dropbox) and existing investor Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (DvH Ventures).
