Gradescope has paid an undisclosed amount to acquire schoolwork analysis software developer Turnitin, which had raised more than $5m from investors including Bloomberg.
Bloomberg Beta, the corporate venturing arm of media group Bloomberg, has exited Gradescope, a US-based schoolwork assessment software developer, through an acquisition of undisclosed size by plagiarism detection service Turnitin.
Founded in 2014, Gradescope offers an artificial intelligence-powered software platform that helps teachers and other educational instructors grade the work of their students.
The technology accepts paper, digital and coding-based assignments, automatically digitising written answers to award marks for the correct answer.
Gradescope will continue to offer its services under the Turnitin umbrella, gaining access to the latter’s resources to help drive product development and build distribution channels. To date, the software has been used by more than 600 schools.
The company is a graduate of University of California (UC) Berkeley’s SkyDeck accelerator according to the latter’s website, though a date for its participation could not be ascertained.
Gradescope received $2.6m in a 2016 round co-led by Bloomberg Beta, UC Berkeley-focused venture capital fund House Fund, Freestyle Capital and Reach Capital that also featuted K9 Ventures.
The business subsequently raised $2.8m in a June 2018 round led by Reach Capital with commitments from Bloomberg Beta, Freestyle, K9, GSV Accelerate and Ironfire Ventures.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
