Perceivant, an education technology company that replaces traditional textbooks with cost-effective, interactive and data-driven learning experiences, today announces it has secured more than $590,000 in funding from both existing and new venture partners. The round brings Perceivant’s total funding to $3.75 million.

 

The funding round will be utilized to bring Perceivant’s competitive, low-cost digital courseware to more colleges nationwide, with the goal to bring on more than 100 new partners in the next 2 years. It will also be allocated toward the creation of more than 10 new courses for the platform as well as grow its staff by threefold and potentially expand its offering into training schools aimed at getting students certified in trades.

 

The round includes contributions from existing investors such as Elevate Ventures and Bootstrap Ventures. It also includes the first investment under new management at Gravity Ventures, who recently announced a relaunch of their management team that would focus on investing in tech-enabled ventures.

 

“We are extremely excited to be partnering with Perceivant and to help further position the company as the leader in the textbook alternative marketplace, said Phill Miller, managing partner at Gravity Ventures. “Perceivant’s business model, which leverages technology to drive better outcomes while improving the classroom experience for both instructor and student, has proven to be extremely successful as the company continues to exceed expectations across higher education.”

 

Founded by Brian Rowe in 2012, Perceivant creates digital coursework that’s designed to make the college classroom experience more engaging. Courses are specifically designed to build student engagement as well as improve student success in general education courses that typically have relatively large student-to-instructor ratios as well as experience the highest dropout and fail rates.

 

Each course is housed on the Perceivant platform, and leverages proprietary learning processes, such as “guided learning”, to reinforce learning objectives and course materials in low-stress environments, which successfully improves competency. Courses also incorporate various learning tools to improve its accessibility, allowing educators to tailor learning styles more effectively while increasing student success.

 

When using Perceivant, educators have access to powerful predictive analytics, so they can analyze engagement in real-time and identify struggling students earlier in the semester while providing support at higher impact. This also allows educators to better understand course efficacy and make content changes with Perceivant’s editorial services to more efficiently update course materials without compromising its integrity.

 

Most notably, Perceivant’s platform doesn’t cost instructors a dime. Instead, the company generates its revenue from sales to students and the products are “unbelievably cheaper” for students than traditional textbooks.

 

This past year, Perceivant positively impacted more than tens of thousands of students nationwide with its technology. It reported nearly 90 percent in student engagement while reducing drop out and fail rates across its university partners, such as Ohio State University and Kennesaw State University. The company also drastically expanded their product catalog with the launch of more than 15 new courses as well as launched a new mobile application to further the accessibility of course content.

 

“The need for Perceivant has never been greater as universities nationwide continue to struggle to find textbook options that are engaging, relevant and affordable,” said Rowe. “As more than 88 percent of students feel they could earn better grades using digital courseware compared to traditional materials, we look forward to leveraging this funding round to fuel our growth in the higher education industry.”