San Francisco-based company, Abl Schools, has just raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Rethink Education, with the help from Sinovation Ventures and Owl Ventures. Abl Schools, which develops time and resource management software for middle schools and high schools, raised $4.5 million in 2016, which now puts the total to $12 million in funding altogether.
Founded by CEO Adam Pisoni, who was a high school dropout, Pisoni also co-founded and served as CTO of Yammer, an enterprise messaging company which Microsoft (NASDAQ:$MSFT) bought for $1.2 billion in 2012.
It was during Pisoni’s time at Microsoft, where he worked as a corporate VP, that he started to think about the ways that one could improve public school education. He also started to think about whether, given his skill set, he could help superintendents and principals get a better grasp on how to utilize the coaches, teachers and other facility members of their school systems. After this, thanks to hard work and dedication, the state-of-the-art scheduling system that Abl Schools has become came into play.
Currently, the almost two-year-old company has a total of 12 employees, most of which are engineers as well as a former edtech CEO and two product designers.
Abl has not disclosed how many schools have agreed to use its software, which costs $3 to $7 per student every year. It’s good to note that the costs will depend entirely on which parts of the product suite are used. However, the company did say that during the spring, twelve schools worked with Abl to help design and test the product. Additionally, Abl has entertained ten schools with workshops in order to gather insight and product requirements that now inform its product strategy.
Abl has now shifted its focus to secondary schools located in districts where enrollment ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 students. In 2018, the company plans to begin supporting elementary schools, as well.
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