Zoom Only Virtual Classroom,Class Nears Unicorn Status
- ByAyushi Ray | July 28, 2021
Zoom only virtual classroom, Class nears unicorn status, after they receive SoftBank check. The 10-month old startup has now raised a total of $146 million in known venture funding to date, which eclipses the amount of capital raised by founder Michael Chasen’s now-public previous company, Blackboard. Despite its infancy, Class is rapidly nearing unicorn status, confirming that it currently sports a post-money valuation of $804 million. Other investors in Class include GSV Ventures and Emergence Capital, who led the startups’ pre-seed round, as well as top U.S. edtech funds including Reach Capital, Owl Ventures, Insight Partners and Learn Capital. Class, formerly Class for Zoom, uses management and instruction tools to bolster the video conferencing call experience. Since launch, Class has integrated exclusively with the videoconferencing giant, which rose to household name prominence during the initial months of the pandemic and continues to be a mainstay in synchronous communication.
Class is still a part of a wave of Zoom alternatives and enhancements that have launched over the past year – and to date has over 250 customers. Class’ international expansion will see it build up local teams in target regions such as the UK and Ireland, EMEA, Latin American and APAC. The startup is expecting to add 100 new team members across the world to its already 200-person team. 65% of the financing will fuel Class’ internationalization and that the remaining will be allocated toward product development. One critique of Class is that the platform offers the same experience to a second grade class as it does to a higher standard class. Therefore, it has been unanimously agreed, this edtech startup needs to add more specificity to its product – perhaps gamification for K-12 and exam proctoring for higher education – in future versions.
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