Vivi, a Melbourne-based EdTech startup focused on classroom engagement solutions, has raised $20 million in a funding round led by education investor Quad Partners.
With the latest round of investment, the Australian startup plans to improve its platform, upgrade its operational infrastructure and hire more sales and marketing teams in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Launched in February 2016 by entrepreneur Dr. Lior Rauchberger, Vivi aims to make the world’s classrooms smarter by providing the simplest and most intuitive classroom engagement solution in the world. Its Classroom Engagement Solution combines classroom management tools with real-time student feedback to create student-centred learning environments that drive productivity. From screen mirroring and video streaming to classroom communications and emergency broadcast, Vivi delivers all from an easy-to-use app, managed via a web-based administration platform.
Vivi’s wireless screen mirroring solution sets teachers free to roam the classroom and interact with students, while enabling students to instantly share their screens with the class or small groups for immediate feedback.
Speaking about the platform, Founder and Executive Chairman, Dr. Lior Rauchberger said in a statement, “Vivi has created demand overseas in a way that’s pretty unique — and largely by word of mouth. The company has evolved from a point solution into a comprehensive student engagement platform that has proven to be incredibly sticky. Our next big goal is to be in a million classrooms as soon as possible and partnering with Quad will certainly speed that up.”
Vivi is a wireless presentation tool that enables teachers and students to share, display, annotate, capture, and save information in real time. Using Vivi, tutors can display their teaching material, including videos and exercises, to students, who then have the ability to annotate the content with their own notes on their own devices. Its other features include digital signage, emergency broadcasts, formative assessment, as well as student health and well-being checks.
The company claims to have provided 14, 000 school districts, with more than 130,000 K-12 schools, and over 5,000 universities and colleges. Vivi is in 12 countries spanning Australia, Europe, Middle East, South East Asia and the Americas so far.
Talking about the company’s expansion plan, Chief Executive Officer of Vivi, Natalie Mactier, said, “Additionally, and as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is unprecedented federal funding in the U.S. going into education, increasing the number of students with laptops, tablets and phones. This is as hybrid learning maintains a growing presence across the country.“…right now, we are moving quickly to take advantage of some significant tailwinds, particularly in the U.S. With a rapidly increasing focus on technology enablement at schools, the highest ratio of 1:1 student devices ever, and increasing awareness of the instructional and administrative benefits of screen mirroring, we are thrilled to be able to get Vivi into the hands of more students, educators, and administrators quickly.”
Vivi, which offers wireless presentation and screen mirroring technology to over 40,000 classrooms around the world, has plans of reaching one million learning spaces in the next five years.
In its international expansion, Vivi is contesting challengers like Airtame, Eupheus, Coorpacademy and Droplr, all being part of a global edtech market that is set to increase by USD 112.39 billion from 2020 to 2025, 46% of which will originate from North America.
Last year in January, Vivi had raised an undisclosed amount in a new funding round with New York-based investment group Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC). The startup’s latest funding brings its total raised to $24.3 million.
