Education Startup Chalk.com Raises $500,000 Funding From Prominent Canadian Entrepreneurs

KITCHENER, Ontario - Jan. 22, 2015 - PRLog -- KITCHENER, Ontario - January 16, 2015 - Chalk.com today announced a funding round led by MaRS Investment Acceleration Fund with participation from BDC Capital, Ryan Holmes (CEO, Hootsuite), and John Baker (CEO, Desire2Learn). Used in over 20,000 schools worldwide, Chalk.com solves the problems of lesson planning, assessment, and collaboration all designed with the teacher in mind. Tying these apps all together is a powerful predictive analytics engine that helps to drive student success. The local startup is led by Forbes 2015 Top 30 Under 30 entrepreneur William Zhou and an eleven strong team.

The current educational system is designed around a factory model and stuck in an era dominated by manufacturing. Chalk.com wants to bring education into the post-industrial era. Technology is giving students the ability to learn based on their own interests and pursue their own passions. Chalk.com gives teachers the tools they need to bring more personalized learning to their students.

“The funding is a great vote of confidence in Chalk.com’s vision for more personalization in the classroom,” states CEO, William Zhou, “and we plan to use this funding to invest even more heavily in ensuring the success of our customers and to further accelerate our growth.”

Chalk.com was the recipient of the 2012 Velocity Fund Finals, the third cohort to receive funding from the University of Waterloo. “Velocity has provided mentorship and resources, but more importantly, they’ve created a community that fosters entrepreneurship. The team will be sad to leave the Velocity Garage with the move to our own office space in Kitchener,” says Zhou.