This week, Amplify, a Brooklyn-based startup that provides educational tech for K-12 students, announced that it raised $215 million in fresh growth funding. It also appears to be in the midst of a hiring spree, with more than 160 open positions available now.
Amplify reaches more than 10 million students in more than 4,000 schools and districts across all 50 states, providing them and teachers with tech-enabled educational programs in English, math and science. The company creates both supplemental and core programs. Amplify also provides assessment and intervention tools teachers can use to ensure their students are staying on track.
Although it has been around for more than 20 years, Amplify is innovating in an area that is particularly important right now thanks to the pandemic. Remote and hybrid learning has proven to be a major hurdle for both teachers and students alike — exacerbating systemic educational gaps that have existed just below the surface for years. Going forward, Amplify wants to fill those gaps, and will use this fresh capital to do it.
“This moment is urgent for accelerating our ability to serve the needs of schools and districts,” CEO Larry Berger said in a statement. “The magnitude of learning loss and the range of hybrid models for delivering instruction call for the kinds of products that Amplify builds.”
This round was led by Learn Capital, a major investor in the edtech space that has also backed rising stars like Udemy, Coursera and, more recently, Teachmint. A-Street Ventures, another education-focused VC firm, also led the round.
“We focus on finding the most extraordinary teams working in education, and Amplify is a natural fit,” Rob Hutter, a managing partner at Learn Capital, said in a statement, adding that the company is standing at the center of “a profound shift” in K-12 education toward digital learning and instructional materials design. “Amplify is uniquely positioned to benefit from both these trends, and we’re thrilled to have this opportunity to participate in the company’s journey.”
