Educational app platform maker Clever scores $30 mln

San Francisco-based Clever, an educational app platform provider, has closed $30 million in funding. The investors were Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, GSV Capital and Peter Thiel. According to the company, the capital infusion will be used for growth and to meet consumer demand.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO – December 16, 2014 –Clever, the maker of the educational app platform used by more than 30,000 schools, today announced it has raised $30 million in a third round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, existing investor Sequoia Capital, and new partners GSV Capital and Peter Thiel. Clever will use the new investment to accelerate growth and meet increasing demand for its app platform, and continue work towards its goal of giving students and teachers back 1 billion hours of class time per year. Clever’s platform streamlines and accelerates the integration of new educational apps for school districts and helps teachers and students maximize classroom learning time with a simple one-click login to all of their apps.

School Adoption More than Doubles To 30,000
Clever has experienced unprecedented growth in the traditionally slow-to-adopt educational arena. Today more than one-in-five schools in America use Clever daily, and this year, eight out of the top ten districts adopted Clever, including Houston, Miami, Hawaii, and Clark County, Nevada. With Clever, districts are experiencing dramatic improvements in the onboarding process−reducing the adoption of new learning apps from months to just a single day.

Clever is also opening up digital learning in the classroom, where increasingly teachers and students have been bogged down remembering multiple usernames and passwords. A recent survey of teachers, conducted for Clever by MDR, revealed an average of 25.4% of computer lab time is lost simply troubleshooting student accounts and logins. Clever’s new single sign-on experience, “Instant Login,” is helping school districts recover so much class time with its one-click login that many districts now require every application they use to support it.

“Along with the many benefits the new world of digital learning offers schools, teachers and students; it also presents new challenges. Our mission at Clever is to build the modern learning platform that simply makes it all work,” said Clever CEO Tyler Bosmeny. “With this new funding, schools can count on Clever being around forever, as a trusted partner that understands their technology needs and always puts student learning first.”

Becoming an Industry Standard in Education
Many of the most prominent online learning companies are building software on Clever’s platform, including Scholastic, Amplify, DreamBox, and The College Board, as well as free content such as CK-12 and GlassLabs. With more than 150 developers, the app installs on the platform have grown by more than 220 percent in the past year. Clever helps developers work more efficiently with school districts by automating the time-consuming integration process and simplifying the use of their apps in the classroom through Instant Login access.

“It’s rare to see a company like Clever that is so beloved by both schools and developers,” said Ravi Mhatre, Founder of Lightspeed Venture Partners. “When we saw the metrics, it was clear that the biggest challenge for Clever is meeting the increasing demand for their platform. We are very excited to be partnered with the Clever team to help them quickly scale and build the first real platform in education.”

About Clever
Clever is the simplest way for schools to keep their learning software in sync with their existing student information systems. Over 30,000 schools across the United States use Clever, and over 150 innovative software applications now integrate with Clever. In 2012, the SIIA named Clever the “Most Innovative Company in Education,” and in 2013, Clever was awarded first place at SXSWedu. Clever’s headquarters are in San Francisco. For more information, contact Clever at 415-562-6483 or http://clever.com