Elevate K-12 Raises $40M Series C Led by General Catalyst to Address Growing Teacher Shortage Nationwide

• The live streaming instruction provider brings synchronous structured instruction to schools and districts to solve the teacher shortage and create a “Teach from Anywhere” modality for teachers.
• The company is developing a new category to rethink how schools and classrooms work; funding will support scale and optimization of products and delivery.
• Series C was led by General Catalyst.

CHICAGO, June 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Raising K-12, the leading provider of high-quality live instruction for U.S. K-12 classrooms, closed a Series C $40 million financing round led by a venture capital firm General Catalyst. The funding will support Elevate K-12 in its mission to solve the continuing teacher shortage crisis expanding its live-teaching model to more schools and districts that lack teachers in critical content areas due to zip code barriers. The funding will allow Elevate K-12 to invest in product and delivery to improve school and classroom teaching experiences.

“We’ve already seen how effective our live teaching is in classrooms, but there’s so much more we can do to improve the live experience for students, schools and our teachers,” said Shaily Baranwal, Founder-CEO of Elevate K-12. “We have proven that live teaching works when done right, and we will continue to build on that. By investing in our product, service, engineering and people, this new round of funding will allow us to to make our service even more powerful as we continue to help schools address teacher shortages.”

The new funding comes at a crucial time for Elevate K-12 and for the country’s school system as a whole, which Baranwal says is ripe for productive innovation. Schools across the country have struggled for years to fill vacancies and reduce class sizes that have ballooned due to teacher shortages, but the crisis has only gotten worse. A survey by the National Education Association found that 55% of teachers say they are now considering leaving the profession sooner than they anticipated at the start of their career. And according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 567,000 fewer educators in public schools than before the pandemic.

Managing Partner of General Catalyst, Hemant Taneja said the company became interested in partnering with Elevate K-12 after seeing the success of the technology company’s platform in its initial partner districts in 27 states.

“Shaily Baranwal and the Elevate K-12 team have built a solution that works for all stakeholders. Students must master new skills and subjects. Districts need to have access to more quality and affordable teachers. Teachers are looking for more mobility and flexibility. Elevate K-12 enables all three and we believe what they build will be transformational,” said Hemant Taneja, Managing Partner at General Catalyst. “We are thrilled to join the mission of making high quality education available to all students, wherever they live, by bringing equality to education.”

Executive General Catalyst in Residence, Lexi Reesewill join the Elevate Board of Directors and shared, “Elevate K-12 provides seamless live instruction with great teachers for schools facing a worsening teacher shortage. In doing so, they enable every child to be able to receive a high quality education regardless of zip code. It is a right that is not granted to too many children today and without education these children and their families are set back long after school is over.

“Almost every professional landscape is changing, and K-12 education is one of the latest markets to see this change,” Baranwal said. “Live, synchronous and structured instruction will solve countless problems for K-12 schools by providing access to teachers who do not live or work in the school’s zip code. We are working to ensure that no classroom in America will not be without a qualified and passionate teacher, and in return, we offer a different lifestyle to teachers who want to teach differently, allowing them to teach from anywhere, which will keep them in the game longer. the profession and will attract more talent to the profession.”

For more information about the Elevate Teacher Initiative and opportunities with Elevate K-12, visit www.elevatek12.com/teachwithus.

About Elevation K-12

Elevate K-12 is a Chicagoa New York-based educational services company that brings high-quality, live instruction to K-12 classrooms. Schools and districts partner with Elevate K-12’s unique instructional solution to solve their problems of teacher shortages and the overuse of long-term replacements or poor quality teachers. Its technology service includes proprietary live instruction management technology, live instruction service, curriculum and classroom management to provide the tools for collaborative teaching and learning that mimics the experience of a real physical classroom. Elevate K-12 currently operates in 27 states and is rapidly expanding to new states and districts across the United States in K-12 schools. For more information, visit www.elevatek12.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitterand LinkedIn.

About General Catalyst

General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that lasts – for our entrepreneurs, investors, employees, and society. We support founders with a long-term vision that challenges the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth and beyond to build companies that stand the test of time. With offices at San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, Londonand Bostonthe company has helped support the growth of companies such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe and Warby Parker. For more: www.generalcatalyst.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
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SOURCE Elevation K-12