Online social learning platform Fiveable has secured fresh funding from new investors, the company has announced recently.
While the Milwaukee-based education technology startup did not disclose the amount, the company said that it received the latest investment from tennis star Serena Williams’ venture capital firm Serena Ventures and early-stage venture capital firm Swell Partners.
This is Fiveable’s investment in little more than six months. The startup had raised $2.3 million in a venture capital funding round in October 2020 led by BBG Ventures with participation from others including Metrodora Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Spero Ventures, Deborah Quazzo, Cream City Venture Capital, 27V, Golden Angels, and SoGal.
Founded in 2018, Fiveable seeks to democratize learning and empower high school students through educational content, community, and collaboration. It aims to bring more content to more students and allow all students to reach their potential. By providing students with free and engaging resources, the platform helps them master complex concepts and skills through interactive live streamed lessons and discussions, fun reviews, and study guides.
Announcing the news and speaking about the platform, Amanda DoAmaral, co-founder and CEO of Fiveable, wrote in a blog post,
“We’ve been talking about our broken education system for decades, but the system is not actually broken. It’s working as intended. We’re just fed up…. We’ve seen the power of digital mass movements in politics and stock markets. Education is next. It’s been budding for decades with teacher Facebook groups and student subreddits. Online communities share resources, motivate each other, and can overcome institutional barriers. Fiveable is the next generation of social learning, where we are building a high school community that will fight for each other. We’re excited to announce additional investors that will help us build this vision including Serena Williams ala Serena Ventures and Swell Partners.”
Fiveable focuses on Advanced Placement (AP) courses with most content available for free. The platform has open-sourced study guides for every unit in all 38 AP subjects, written and edited by students and teachers to be shared with everyone. Fiveable also hosts an active Discord server where students from around the world build study groups and connect with each other.
Commenting on the investment, Serena Williams, founder of Serena Ventures, said in a statement,
“What impresses us most about Fiveable is how well they understand and are immersed in today’s students; that’s what initially piqued our interest. The way they’ve brought students in to help guide their roadmap is unlike anything I’ve seen. Based on their growth in users and engagement, it’s evident that their social learning community has cracked the code on peer-to-peer learning.”
Fiveable claimed that more than half a million students have used its platform in the last 30 days.
With the latest funding, Fiveable has raised over $4.2 million since the winter of 2019. The company said that these funds have allowed it to grow its team in preparation for its largest cram season ever.
