Tailor-ED closes extension of its seed round led by the Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund and Lucas Venture Group
The new funding will support the scaling of Tailor-ED’s award-winning personalized education platform
Tailor-ED announced today the closing of an extended Seed Round led by Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund and Lucas Venture Group. The round was joined by existing investors Benson Oak Ventures, Symbiosis Technology and private investors who invested in the original seed round along with Y Combinator.
Tailor-ED has developed a proprietary software solution that leverages artificial intelligence to personalize all educational content based on both student social-emotional readiness as well as academic achievement. This provides immense benefits to all stakeholders in the education ecosystem – teachers, students, parents and content providers. Educators can easily create short assessments to understand both the social-emotional and academic needs of students as well as receive personalized recommendations as to which educational resources are the most effective for each student, for each lesson.
Innosphere Ventures, a technology incubator and accelerator program based in Colorado, partners with the Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund (ICI Fund) to provide customized business support services to the startup portfolio companies of the ICI Fund.
Innosphere’s assistance is focused on areas of greatest need within the companies and in many cases includes product commercialization services for the United States market. “Tailor-ED’s solution will bring significant value not only to students, teachers and educational institutions, but also to content developers,” said Tim Jones, General Partner at Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund.
Tailor-ED is now launching its new Exit Ticket Builder and the world’s largest Smart Resource Library for the new school season. Tailor-ED’s innovative product capabilities save educators hours of their time as well as help them better understand the needs of their students who in turn benefit from effective learning experiences tailored specifically for them. The Smart Library incorporates content from multiple sources including over 40 Tailor-ED content partners who benefit from valuable exposure to users as well as data on efficacy of materials for long-term development.
“Tailor-ED’s innovative technology to ingest different content sources to continuously assess what is the most effective learning content for students is the first of its kind. The potential to be able to compare the effectiveness of learning content at scale truly achieves the vision of driving more effective learning experiences and I am excited to join the founders’ journey,” said Sarah Lucas, General Partner, Lucas Venture Group.
“Both co-founders have computer science degrees from leading Israeli universities and master degrees from Stanford University and combined with their business acumen and passion for education they are bringing an advanced technology approach that revolutionizes the education industry by taking into account, for the first time, the social-emotional state of kids and not only the learning skills while teaching in class,” according to Gili Elkin, General Partner, Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund.
“We are very excited to partner with Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund and Lucas Venture Group on our journey to transform the student and teacher educational experience,” said Maayan Yavne, Co-Founder and CEO of Tailor-ED. “We look forward to growing our company in the US market and implementing our technology in K-12 schools in the U.S.,” said Yael Haramaty, Co-founder and CTO at Tailor-ED.
Through the use of Machine Learning and Tailor-ED’s unique data, the solution knows how to identify different learner groups based on multiple learning dimensions, predict student progress, and personalize lessons for both individual students and entire classes. The ultimate outcome is an increased effectiveness of learning through a more personalized student-centric approach that is not based on achievement alone.
“As early seed investors in Tailor-ED, we have witnessed firsthand as Maayan and Yael navigated the stresses on the education ecosystem brought by Covid-19 to continue development of their personalized platform to promulgate their vision that every student requires – and deserves – a personalized approach to their learning,” said Robert Cohen, Managing Director of Benson Oak Ventures, “We are thrilled to have such value-added investors join the shareholder group and provide support Tailor-ED to be the leading personalized education platform.”
“Though our cutting-edge technology is core to what we do, the main driver behind our product development are educators. Most of our team are former teachers and we believe that to truly disrupt this market you need to be as close to the ground as possible and have an amazing team with you. Luckily, we have both,” said Haramaty.
With over 100,000 students on the Tailor-ED platform and partnerships with over 40 content providers, Tailor-ED works with teachers, schools and content providers towards their vision to ensure each student receives the most effective learning experience.
About Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund:
Israel – Colorado Innovation Fund is a US based venture capital fund investing in early stage Israeli companies and supporting their scale-up in the US market. ICI Fund leverages the expertise of Innosphere Ventures, Colorado’s leading technology incubator. ICI Fund was formed to commercialize Israeli cutting-edge technologies in Colorado and beyond. https://www.ici.fund/
About Lucas Venture Group
LVG was founded by second-generation venture capitalist Donald A. Lucas, who spent his entire professional career focused on investing in private companies, working with entrepreneurs and their management teams, and leveraging his vast network to create value throughout all stages of investments. The LVG portfolio spans life sciences, cybersecurity, AI/ML, social purpose, e-commerce, fintech, and transformative medical device companies. The unique network, cultivated over multiple decades of involvement in the venture space, produces exceptional access to financial and intellectual capital for entrepreneurs. In 2020, LVG companies Berkeley, Lights and Palantir were in the top 10 exits. Since early 2020, LVG has been led by Sarah Lucas, who serves as General Partner of her late husband’s firm. Sarah’s unique background and extensive network extend beyond Silicon Valley to the entertainment world and her knowledge and skills as a three-time founder are invaluable. Sarah and the LVG team, which includes third-generation VC Jack Lucas, have continued to build on the strong foundation, following the principles of Donald and his father, Donald L. Lucas. Current assets under management total $75M. In addition to her role at LVG, in January 2021, she became the first female partner at Celesta leading their diversity efforts. https://www.lucasvg.com
About Tailor-ED
Tailor-ED drives increased student outcomes and wellbeing through personalization of instruction. Cutting edge artificial intelligence optimizes student assessment and determines ideal instructional content. Tailor-ED is improving student results while reducing teacher workload. https://www.Tailor-ED.com