Teaching aid platform Edrolo raises $40 million Series B

Edtech startup Edrolo has raised $40 million in a Series B that’s drawn the attention of four superannuation funds.

The round was led by Blackbird, supported by AirTree and retirement funds Aware Super, HESTA, NGS, and Telstra Super. 

The 10-year-old venture’s goal is to improve the resources and content schools use for teaching and learning.

Edrolo is used by more than 250,000 students at 1,100-plus schools nationally every year. They used the platform for 71 million online video plays and 106 million pieces of content in 2021. The focus so far has been on senior high school years and they will now turn their attention to material for in Years 7 to 10 in a staggered approach. 

The company’s goal is to have one million Year 7 to 12 students using its resources by 2025 – 300% growth in just three years.

Co-founder and co-CEO Ben Sze said the business is at an important inflection point, along with the teachers and students who use it.

“We are humbled by the fact that we have some of Australia’s best investors supporting and enabling us to provide teachers and students in Years 7 to 12 across Australia with carefully crafted learning resources that can move the dial on student outcomes,” he said.

“This is our reason for being, and a significant responsibility – something we don’t shoulder lightly. The Edrolo team, of almost 200 people, work on this every day. We believe we can make the biggest difference, and impact, by focusing on enhancing the 6,000+ hours a student spends in their secondary education.” 

Sze said they’ll be building out the platform’s high-quality engaging content for every lesson, saving teachers preparation time and getting students interested, on-task, and learning.

Edrolo has already launched core curriculum resources for Year 7 Maths and Science, with Humanities coming later this year.

“More than 25,000 hours of expertise was poured into its new Year 7 Maths and Science resources,” Sze said.

“Edrolo’s authoring process differs from traditional publishers, in that everything is created in-house by subject-specialist teams of 5-10 people who work full-time, all year, to research, author and quality assure the resources Edrolo creates.”

Aware Super Senior Portfolio Manager Jenny Newmarch said the fund is looking to invest in companies have a positive impact on its members in their daily lives. 

“Edrolo’s solutions have been instrumental in supporting teachers and students during school closures and Australia’s forced need to embrace remote learning,” she said.

“As the super fund for hundreds of thousands of Australian teachers, Aware Super is proud to invest in such a great Australian innovation story, supporting the essential work of our educators every single day.”