There is one thing that this pandemic has done, it has exposed the weaknesses in the country's education system. From tackling the digital divide to engaging students with remote learning, the education landscape will not be the same.
Leaders from different sectors are attempting to solve the various issues including the startup sector and Milwaukee's Fiveable is one of them.
Founded by Amanda DoAmaral, Fiveable is an online learning platform for high school students. It is kind of like Twitch but for education. The platform covers many subjects with a focus on AP courses and serves 1.5 million students with dedicated test prep resources. Now, with the help of $2.3 million in venture capital funding, Fiveable is working on building the future of remote learning. This round of funding is led by BBG Ventures, an early-stage fund focused on consumer tech startups with a female founder.
Additional investors include Metrodora Ventures (Chelsea Clinton’s newly launched fund focused on health and learning businesses), Deborah Quazzo, Spero Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Cream City Venture Capital, 27V, Golden Angel Investors and SoGal.
Fiveable will launch Fiveable Community later this winter. According to the press release, the community was founded on the principle of prioritizing inclusion and engaging students on topics that matter most to them. Dedicated spaces, which have organically evolved to align with students’ interests, house discussions around social justice, mental health, LGBTQIA, affirmations and much more, allowing students to expand their learnings and perspectives beyond the content being taught in the classroom.
From the press release:
The company formed an 800 student team of “Founding Members” to identify the specific problems high school students face and to develop a community space that could tackle them. These students worked closely with the company’s product team through design forums, focus groups, and brainstorming sessions.
“When we brought students into the product development process, we found that their main challenges were more about isolation and motivation rather than a lack of resources. While COVID-19 has escalated this, a community to connect students across school boundaries has been sorely needed for a long time. We’re grateful to have an incredible group of investors behind us who share our vision and support our student-first approach,” said Amanda DoAmaral, founder and CEO of Fiveable.
Fiveable’s primary goal is to blend together education and socialization with a platform that provides a library of more than 5,000 pieces of content -- study guides, live streamed lessons, Q&A forums -- and community, where students are seen holistically and can support each other socially and safely online.
