Melbourne-based edtech startup, Intellischool, has raised $3.3m in funding fuelling customer growth and continued product enhancements to its innovative data and analytics platform.
Intellischool’s product is a SaaS solution targeted at the global primary and secondary schools market. Founded by Dave Philp and Josh Turci in 2018, the product integrates rich data across software solutions in a school environment to surface analytics for teachers, school administrators, students and parents to drive student performance and wellbeing. Its unique deep integrations enable the solution to surface context-aware, actionable insights into existing learning workflows, in the process adding value to every education technology value proposition.
Primary and secondary schools alike face unique data challenges as their use of software solutions has proliferated. The last decade has seen rapid adoption of software within the school environment, further accelerated by the pandemic. It is now common to see a school with a tech stack of many dozens of software solutions, each managing different aspects of a school’s day-to-day operations. The typical tech stack for a school might include a Student Information System, a Learning Management System (LMS), several digital curriculum providers, multiple learning and assessment tools and student wellbeing tools. Collectively, this fragmented and often legacy software environment makes it difficult for information to synchronise between solutions and for school staff to draw insights for student benefit.
Intellischool’s product integrates data across these underlying systems and surfaces deep analytics in a purpose-built reporting suite for schools. Understanding teacher frustration with switching between software systems, the Intellischool solution has been architected to surface insights within the existing solutions that teachers use day-to-day. This enables easy adoption and surfaces relevant “in the moment” insights for teachers to act on.
Intellischool’s co-founder Dave Philp notes, “In my previous roles working with schools, I saw first-hand the frustration teachers experienced in making the most from their data. Initial excitement for all new and exciting software was quickly displaced by confusion as valuable information sat across multiple siloed tools. Teachers and school staff were crying out for a way to make sense of all this unactionable data. Josh and I were very deliberate in building a solution that made simple and actionable insights a part of day-to-day learning and teaching.”
“It’s immensely gratifying to see how Intellischool’s product has become mission critical for teachers, students, and school administrators. For teachers, our software allows them to see student performance and identify at-risk students. For the homeroom teacher, year level coordinators, and student mentors, automated and timely notifications have proved critical in facilitating check-ins with students, prompting out-of-cycle interventions and identifying which students may require priority attention. For principals and school administrators, having holistic data on student performance enables schools to apply for needs-based funding and grants to service underperforming students.”
“We’ve seen huge demand for our product since going live only two years ago. Schools need little convincing to come on board, and ultimately understand that our product improves student outcomes, teacher job satisfaction and overall school performance.”
The $3.3 million investment was led by Sydney-based venture fund, EVP, who are joined by the social impact investor Save the Children Impact Investment Fund, edtech juggernauts Schoolbox and Curio Ventures, and several successful edtech entrepreneurs who have invested in a personal capacity.
EVP Investment Manager, Mark Velik, noted regarding their investment, “Intellischool has demonstrated strong traction in the notoriously difficult to access school market, demonstrating the inherent value the solution provides to multiple users in the school environment. Our discussions with Intellischool customers and prospects confirmed the deep emotional relief provided by Intellischool’s product and the seriousness of the problem to be tackled.”
“Initial offshore customers proved it was a global opportunity of scale for the business to address. In Dave and Josh we saw the perfect founders to tackle this huge task with their deep relevant experience in data and technology roles in schools.”
About Intellischool
Founded in 2018, Intellischool is a Melbourne-based startup focused on improving student performance and wellbeing in K-12 schools. Leveraging deep integrations across the multitude of software solutions in a school environment, Intellischool surfaces context-aware actionable insights into existing learning workflows for teachers and school staff to save time and drive optimal student outcomes.
intellischool.co
About EVP
EVP is an early stage venture capital firm focused on B2B software companies. EVP currently has over $200m under management across a portfolio of over 40 software companies. Based in Sydney, Australia, EVP invests entirely in B2B SaaS and marketplace companies across a broad range of industries. Companies include the likes of Ignition, Deputy, Shippit, Practifi, Lumary and Hnry.
evp.com.au
About the Save the Children Impact Investment Fund (SCIF)
SCIF provides debt and equity investments for startups and social enterprises that are aligned to Save the Children’s mission. SCIF are particularly interested in opportunities that support rapid progress for children globally. Leveraging Save the Children’s global reach, with over 25,000 staff in 115 countries and a deep understanding of education, health and child protection, SCIF brings a global platform, operational footprint, networks and partnerships to the startups they invest in. Other SCIF investments include Inquisitive, Dataro and THINKMD.
savethechildren.org.au
Cover photo by Sam Balye on Unsplash