Pluralsight, an online training platform for professionals in the tech sector, has acquired learn-to-code platform Code School for $32 million. Through the acquisition Pluralsight extends its library to beginner level courses. Founded in 2011, Code School has attracted over 1 million subscribers with around 40.000 of them being active ones at the time of the acquisition. The startup offers over 40 courses starting at beginner levels. The courses are presented in an entertaining way with added gamification elements, like in-browser coding challenges and badges. A subscription to Code School starts at $29 per month. "Code School has differentiated itself as a fun, efficient, hands-on way to learn, offering introductory to advanced courses that are really effective." states Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard in the press release. The acquisition of Code School is the sixth in 18 months by Pluralsight which raised a $135 million Series B in August. In November the company acquired skill test platform Smarterer in order to create an industry wide standard for tech skill assessment. Like Smarterer, Code School will remain a separate entity with the team remaining in Orlando. The platform will serve as an entry point to more advanced coding classes offered by Pluralsight. Code School will also offer 10 courses from Pluralsight to its subscribers, reports TechCrunch. lynda.com, one of Pluralsight’s main competitors, just closed a $186 million Series B which will be mainly used to acquire edtech companies. According to lynda.com CEO Eric Robin the company is in the final stage of due dilligence with one and has letters of intent with three other edtech companies. This means we can expect further consolidation in the tech education space throughout 2015. Further Reading Code School has Joined the Pluralsight Team | Code School Pluralsight Acquires "Learn-to-Code" Platform Code School for $36 Million | Pluralsight Online Learning Service Pluralsight Acquires Code School For $36 Million | TechCrunch Links codeschool.com

Courtesy OnlineUniversities.com

As part of its $350 million commitment to education, AT&T announced the opening of the AT&T Aspire Accelerator program. The program aims to support edtech startups with social impact with a special focus on solutions for at-risk students. For-profit participants in the AT&T Aspire Accelerator will receive $50,000 in return for 5% equity, non-profits will receive a general contribution and need to submit impact measurements. AT&T will also cover travel expenses and other costs associated with the program for up to $25,000 as participants don’t need to relocate for the accelerator. Other perks of the accelerator include the usual mentorship from industry experts and national promotion through the AT&T Aspire Initiative. The application is open to any organization in the United States that uses technology to support students' educational and workforce success including but not limited to mobile applications that drive education outcomes platforms for teachers, students and/or parents learning and curriculum management tools assessment and outcome tracking platforms education distribution (online instruction, courses, etc.) increased access for existing best practices Applications can be submitted via the Aspire Accelerator website until February 20th 2015. The program will kick off in May and end in October with a demo day. Further Reading AT&T Aspire Launches Ed-Tech Accelerator Focused On Social Impact | PR Newswire Links about.att.com/csr/aspireaccelerator

Courtesy EdTechTimes

Non-profit NewSchools Venture Fund is in the process of creating a new for-profit investment fund, reports EdSurge. The new fund will be lead by Jennifer Carolan who is currently in charge of the NewSchools Venture Seed Fund. Carolan will be leaving the non-profit on January 30th to focus on setting up the new fund. Details on the new for-profit fund are still to be determined including the relationship between the two entities and the size of the new fund. For the time being all startups NewSchools Venture Seed Fund invested in remain assets of the non-profit, and the fund remains operational. The new for-profit fund will have its own portfolio and make investments beyond the seed stage. "One thing the new structure and access to additional investors can give us is the opportunity to participate in follow-on rounds for more of our seed stage companies going forward." states NewSchools CEO Stacey Childress in the interview. "It’s a great signal for other investors who may only come in at later rounds. To be able to provide follow-up support signals the confidence that our investor team has, having been with a company through the seed stage It’s a signal to the market of the potential of that company." Since its launch in 2012 NewSchools Venture Seed Fund has invested around $12 million in 42 edtech startups. After the launch of the new for-profit fund, NewSchools will still offer grants to edtech startups but will refocus on its original mission of supporting innovation in charter schools and districts. Further Reading NewSchools Spins Off New, For-Profit Venture Fund | EdSurge NewSchools' Nonprofit Seed Fund Gives Way to For-Profit Investment Arm | EdWeek Links nsvfseed.org

Student debt remains one of the pressing issues in higher education today, and the cost of textbooks still plays an important role in the equation. There is a range of edtech startups tackling this issue in different ways, from unbundling textbooks to OER. Redshelf which just raised a $2 million Series A led by the National Association of College Stores offers a digital distribution platform, enabling students to rent digital textbooks with different durations, offering up to 60% in savings. Introduce your startup and give a short description of what you are doing. Through the power of our software platform, the RedShelf goal is to create new efficiencies for digital content discovery, distribution, and consumption in the learning community. RedShelf ​aims to improve the online learning experience and accelerate the transition to digital in ways that support publishers, institutional bookstores, faculty, and students. Who are the founders, how did you meet, what are your different roles in the startup. [caption id="attachment_10377" align="alignnone" width="474"] The Redshelf team celebrating the Series A round.[/caption] Gregory Fenton, Co-founder/CEO & Timothy Haitaian, Co-founder/CFO. Greg and Tim have been friends since high school and co-founded RedShelf while attending college after they experienced the difficulties of accessing learning content digitally. Greg oversees new business development and product development while Tim manages RedShelf’s operations and finances. What is the main problem in education that you aim to solve. We work closely with our publisher partners and aim to provide more affordable eTextbooks for students by offering our digital materials for both lifetime access and ​limited duration options such as​ (90-day, 180-day​, and 360-days​). The limited duration options provide a deeper discount and could offer up to 60% savings compared to a traditional print book. In addition to affordable course material options we aim to provide the best reader experience through our HTML Cloud eReader. In which markets / regions are you active. What markets / regions are next. Students all over the world could purchase and read with RedShelf. Today, we are mainly focused in the higher education space within the USA. Who is your target audience. Over the last couple years campus bookstores have seen the rise in digital textbooks. In order for the campus bookstore to compete with online vendors such as Amazon or Chegg, an increasing number are turning to RedShelf to help them compete. RedShelf has more than 160 campus bookstore partnerships, and over 160,000 titles available. RedShelf has partnerships with thousands of major and independent publishers - more than any of their competitors, and acts as the bridge between the publishers and the the schools. RedShelf is able to offer 20X as many titles as their competitors as a result of these publisher relationships. RedShelf is able to attract so many publishing partners both because of their wide distribution of affiliated colleges and because their in-house e-reader allows them access to valuable user data which they can then relay back to the publishers. How do you engage with your target audience. How do you convert them into users of your product. Our sales team is actively working to build partnerships with publisher and institutional bookstores. For our students we engage mainly on ensuring our options are visible when searching for their course materials to purchase. What is your business model. How much does your product / service cost. RedShelf derives about 80% of its sales through retail partnerships with bookstores. The other 20% comes from direct-to-consumer purchases where RedShelf does not work with the local bookstore. While RedShelf can’t share exact revenue numbers, on average it has seen 400% year-over-year growth since 2012. Who are your main competitors? Some of our competitors within the college bookstore realm include: Course Smart, Barnes & Noble Yuzu and BryteWave. If you raised funding, how much did you raise. Who are your investors. If not, are you planning to raise funding. We've recently raised $2M in Series A funding from the National Association of College Stores (NACS) and previous investors. Are there milestones you are especially proud of and would like to share. RedShelf grew from 20 bookstores to 160 in 2014! RedShelf was the first edtech startup to partner directly with all five major academic publishers which included Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Cengage, Macmillan and John Wiley & Sons. What are the next steps in growing your startup. RedShelf will use the funding to launch new features and products, improve upon the existing platform, and support new relationships with both publishers and educational institutions. RedShelf plans to partner with at least 350 bookstores by the end of 2015, building on the explosive growth of 2014. How can people get in touch with you. press@redshelf.com sales@redshelf.com Website: www.redshelf.com Blog: blog.redshelf.com Twitter: @readanywhere LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/virdocs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RedShelf

Courtesy EdTech Times

Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Acer and Google announced a partnership to make Android powered tablet devices pre-loaded with educational content for U.S. K-8 schools. The 10 inch tablets will be equipped with Google Play for Education, giving teachers and learners access to a wide variety of teacher approved applications. Acer expects that Android based tablets will see similar success in the education sector as Google Chrome based laptops, which saw tremendous growth in 2014. The company is the leader in the Chromebook segment with a 40% market share, according to Gartner. Last week Acer presented its latest Google Chrome laptops for the education space at BETT in London. via Focus Taiwan | Acer

Click to enlarge Source: Open Colleges, via EdTech Times