A London education tech company called Firefly learning launched its SaaS teaching and learning support platform in 2009. It has taken VC investment to accelerate growth of its user base by announcing a $5.6 million Series A today. BGF ventures is the top investor that has put $3 million in the venture. Beringea might also be investing in it but this is subjected to conditions at this point.
It enables teachers to set homework assignment, keep record and track pupils’ progress, give feedback and share learning sources through cloud based support. Students can use it for accessing and organizing learning resources and homework assignments. Parents can use it to keep an eye on their kids’ school work progress automatically. It is able to keep parents in the loop of their children school work. Firefly with this module aims to make learning more transparent. The aim is to keep parents more engaged and involved in school work. With this teachers will be more efficient and will facilitate students.
The platform integrates with Google Apps and Office 365 which means that it has mobile and desktop apps. Firefly has its own API for education software through which other parties plug in their content. Amazon is also planning on launching a platform like this. Since, schools on the average in the United Kingdom spend $900 million on education a year there is a potential business model here. Firefly with this platform is planning to focus on user/ease of use so that schools specific needs are met.
480 schools are paying subscribers to Firefly. The platform is able to reach 400,000 pupils and adoption has been very quick. 59 percent of the users are independent school while 26 percent lies in the school state side. 15 percent of its user base is international schools.
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In this new venture the game plan is to expand the platform reach to many more schools in the United Kingdom. Using this investment it will accelerate its growth through marketing and sales activity. In conclusion, the company is trying to double its growth with the help of these funds.
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