Knewton Ready to Expand With $25 Million

NEW YORK — Knewton, a developer of educational software for college students, has closed its latest financing round, which includes up to $25 million in capital.

Knewton plans to use the funding to expand Alta, the company’s adaptive learning courseware for higher education, which made its U.S. debut in January 2018.

The financing round was led by TriplePoint Capital with a debt facility of up to $20 million. Knewton’s existing investors — which include Accel, Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital, Founders Fund and Sofina — invested an additional $5 million.

“Knewton’s adaptive learning platform has long been the envy of the ed-tech industry. By putting it directly in the hands of students and instructors with Alta, we’ve figured out how we can make the biggest impact on improving student outcomes,” said Brian Kibby, CEO of Knewton. “With this investment, we will bring Alta to scale while developing new ways of using our technology to enable true data-driven teaching and learning throughout the course experience.”

“What Knewton has accomplished with Alta in less than eight months is remarkable. We’re excited to support Knewton’s effort to put Alta into the hands of every college student in the U.S.,” said Jim Labe, CEO of TriplePoint Capital.

Alta delivers a personalized learning experience for students by harnessing the power of Knewton’s adaptive learning technology. In 2017, Knewton invested in making Alta accessible to all learners, achieving WCAG 2.0 AA-level ADA compliance across Alta’s technology, content and user experience. By leveraging high quality, openly available content, Knewton is able to offer Alta to students for only $44 per course.

Knewton expects that more than 250 colleges and universities will be using Alta during the Fall 2018 term.