It aspires to match startups with Pearson brands to deliver pilot programmes and offer access to Pearson resources and product experts, including the opportunity to work closely with a Pearson brand over the course of the program.
Pearson Catalyst desires to work with forward thinking companies to solve the biggest challenges in global education and believes the future of learning is digital, personal and driven by data. It looks for dynamic, technology-centric, startup teams with a mix of talent, that have been up and running for less than three years and who have viable products that are ready for launch in the market. The ideal startup companies receive products that complement or enhance a Pearson brand. Pearson Catalyst incubates and accelerates up to ten teams of founders for at least three-months starting. Startups are required to work and be based out of their existing offices, with the potential to meet at Pearson offices as well.
Startups selected to participate in Pearson Catalyst will receive:
Access to Pearson executives and product experts and the opportunity to be matched with a Pearson company, including a top Pearson executive as key sponsor.
The opportunity to present at a Pearson demo day to Pearson executives and technology leaders.
Up to $10K for travel and related costs.
Pearson Catalyst selects startups from a large pool applicants from around the globe, and its startup partners are some of the most innovative in the EdTech space. The startups involved with it are Ace Learning Company
, Actively Learn, ClassOwl , Full Stack Data Science, Spongelab, VLinks Media and many more. Pearson Catalyst also has partners as diverse as EdTech accelerators to innovative co-working spaces, which have deep knowledge of working with startups.
To qualify, startups must have a pre-existing product in development, so that any possible pairings have the opportunity to make a rapid impact, disrupting Pearson both internally and externally.
Another criterion for Pearson Catalyst for Education is that the company addresses one of the following business challenges, identified by Pearson:
- Create a mobile test prep app which helps students pass their industry certifications/credential exams using Pearson content.
- Create a virtual clinical environment for Health Profession students that allows them to apply theories they learn realistically in a simulated environment.
- Create a simple web-based service that enables MOOC providers to embed Pearson’s premium content into their MOOCs.
- Develop a web service for institutional adoption that provides a space for academic and social planning which can be integrated with Pearson’s content delivery platforms.
- Repurpose literature content into new digital offering for college and K12 markets to create a more engaging, collaborative active reading experience.
- Develop a tool to identify student cheating and integrate it with Pearson K-20 products /systems.
These challenges were shortlisted based on how well they were education product focused, succinct and unambiguous, allowed for viable implementation during three-month program period, transferable across the Pearson group and have the potential to be scalable and impact the wider industry, likely to be disruptive, and opportunity for alignment with startup entries.
The startups are bound to benefit by this collaboration in a number of ways. They get the opportunity to learn a good deal from Pearson’s extensive experience in the educational publishing and services. They get to work with a very strong sales force, as well as some of the best content authors and efficacy experts in the industry, the experience is energizing and they get substantial knowledge on how a lean company should operate, they understand the significance of being flexible and truly independent and how their decisions have a direct impact on their businesses. The pilot programme comes as an add-on and is the most benefiting factor. With many more advantages like these, startups can really help inform and drive their product goals.
We believe that Pearson and startups brought together can be the perfect combination to build a great future of education. Interested education and EdTech startups can apply now by emailing future_tech@pearson.com .
