The New South Wales University spinout has raised $4m in funding from investors including Uniseed to develop its online learning platform.
Smart Sparrow, an adaptive online learning platform spun out of New South Wales University, has received $4m in funding from investors including commercialisation firm Uniseed, according to EdSurge.
Uniseed, backed by New South Wales, Melbourne and Queensland universities as well as research institute CSIRO, participated alongside VC firm One Ventures and investment firm Moelis Australia Asset Management, which led the round with a $3m commitment.
Smart Sparrow, spun out in 2011, has developed the Adaptive eLearning Platform, an online resource for university tutors to prepare adaptive courseware which caters online lessons to individual student needs.
Although the company has not disclosed what it will spend the capital on, Dror Ben-Naim, chief executive of Smart Sparrow, has hinted that the company may expand from its university market and adapt its software to the K-12 science market.
In 2013, the company raised $2m from Uniseed Ventures and One Ventures in a series A round, and in 2015, the company raised $10m in a series B round led by investment firm Yellow Brick Capital Advisers.
Additionally, in 2016 the company received a $4.5m grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the private foundation of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, to develop BioBeyond, a general science educational course designed to reach non-science majors.
