Female-founded edtech startup Pivot banks $1.4 million to support student and teacher wellbeing

Melbourne education tech startup Pivot has raised $1.4 million for its schools feedback platform to improve teaching. 

The round was led by the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle and technology firm DiUS, with support from LaunchVic’s women-led investment program the Alice Anderson Fund.

The funding will be used to re-platform the company’s survey-based technology and launch a new suite of student and teacher wellbeing tools.

Pivot was founded in 2014 by Caitlin Macleod, Cleo Westhorpe and Belinda Harries, who set out to transform teaching practice by translating student feedback to classrooms, and help teachers and school leaders to be better educators. 

Pivot’s survey-based technology focuses on collecting student feedback to help teachers improve their teaching practice. Those data insights and resources have been used by more than 50,000 teachers and 1500 schools in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

Pivot’s teacher and student wellbeing tools provide school leaders with a fast, evidence-based and actionable way to improve student engagement, teaching quality and overall school performance. 

 Pivot CEO Tim Watts said Pivot has had real impact: with 3 out of 4 teachers making a change to their practice after doing their ‘Pivot’, while 9 out of 10 leaders use Pivot data and insights in school planning and reporting.

“We’ve had a terrific start to the year with hundreds of schools across Australia and internationally using Pivot’s leading data-driven approach to improve teaching practice and student and teacher wellbeing,” he said.

“Our mission to transform teaching practice starts with teachers who have the tools, resources and supports to perform at their best. We know this leads to real impact, with improvements in student learning engagement and learning outcomes, as well as teacher workplace satisfaction and retention.” 

Catholic Diocese of Newcastle Maitland CEO Sean Scanlon said they believe Pivot’s technology “has the potential to revolutionise the way education is delivered”. 

Harries said they’re pleased to have the financial support of three key investors.

“Their expertise and resources will help us to bring our ground breaking approach to even more schools and support more teachers to improve their effectiveness in the classroom,” she said. 

LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said: “Victoria is home to a number exceptional EdTech startups like Pivot, whose innovative approach will have a significant impact on the education industry.”