Highfive, an Indianapolis-based EdTech pioneer, recently closed a $250,000 seed funding round to develop nationally in the United States. The company will commence their go-to-market strategy in five essential states and then look to expand rapidly. The round was led by Roosh X, with additional investment from LearnLaunch Accelerator, the top US EdTech accelerator. Roosh X will work with Highfive to co-build a new version of Highfive’s flagship classroom product, aiming to reach 100 new schools with 15,000 users by the end of the year.
Co-founded in 2023 by Nathan Maynard, Dr Luke Roberts and Laura Morton, with an aim to end the school-to-prison pipeline and create generational paths of success. The app provides research-informed advice and a unique empathy-driven approach to teacher discipline strategies. The platform has served 1.5 million students globally and saved 850,000 hours of school administrative time since its conception. It employs a team of 13 people and has raised $430,000 to date.
Since then, Highfive has seen rapid growth, with 30,000 active monthly users, and plans to double its user base by December 2024. The programming has seen success in 36 states, empowering educators to help students feel like they belong, helping educators work through conflict with top skills, and teaching students critical skills as a normal part of the school day. These positive changes made in schools improve attendance and grades and, as a result, decrease the chances of violence and crime.
Speaking on the fundraising, Nathan Maynard, Co-founder & CEO of Highfive, said:
We’re excited by this next chapter in Highfive’s story. The investment will allow us to continue our mission – enabling well-being and positive relationships within every school community – on a grander scale. Our ongoing work focuses on scalability, security, and user experience, making it easier for schools to onboard and maximize the benefits of this transformative tool. Together, we’re not just building a product; we’re shaping the future of education by creating more empathetic and safe learning environments.
Traditional approaches to education often rely on fear-based discipline, which results in a no or low-empathy teaching environment. Highfive is an app that supports teachers in the classroom with a non-prescriptive approach, ensuring that students and educators have resources and agency through choice. The startup empowers educators to help students feel like they belong and allows educators to work through conflict with more skill, agency, and choice.
Serhiy Tokarev, Co-founder & General Partner of Roosh, added:
Highfive’s unique approach, built around empathy and forgiveness, speaks for itself. With successes across the USA, reducing exclusion rates and discipline referrals drastically, Highfive is evidence that tangible, forward-thinking change can be made to the education system. At Roosh X, we’re proud to have been able to provide our deep technical expertise to co-build Highfive’s product and AI strategy.
With this funding round, the firm will focus on the lowest-performing K-12 schools in target states in the United States, particularly those with low academic metrics and disproportionate discipline issues.
Roosh X, as an investment arm of Roosh Investment Group, focuses on co-building and scaling businesses focused on profitability by providing investment alongside deep tech expertise. It identified Highfive’s potential in the large US education market, strong mission alignment, and opportunity for product co-building.
To co-build with Highfive, Roosh X started developing a new, scalable product version. This focus on technical assistance freed up Highfive to focus on expanding its offering into new schools across the US. The organization is also developing Highfive’s AI strategy to automate manual work and reporting processes. In the future, it plans to expand the functionality of the Highfive app and implement further AI features.
