DIGEDU: $2.5 million to Chicago, IL-based digedu in a seed round led by 7wire Ventures' Glen Tullman and Lee Shapiro. Digedu provides a variety of hardware services for schools, including devices, bandwidth solutions, charging stations, well as an online "Learning Engine" platform that allows teachers to design and deliver content and assessments and capture their feedback and results. ChicagoBusiness.com reports it is currently being used by over 5,000 students in 40 schools across 12 states, with half of the users in Chicago.
Speaking with EdSurge, Digedu CEO Matt Tullman elaborates on the different schools his team of 17 has worked with. "Some innovative schools bought everyone an iPad but not enough bandwidth. Others have no devices, no network, so we provide a soup-to-nuts solutions" that includes all the hardware and infrastructure needed to get the school set up for digital learning.
Regarding device preferences, Tullman adds: "What I hear most often from the layman administrator is that it's all about Chromebooks and iPads. If they want keyboards, they're going Chromebook; if it's touchscreen, then it's the iPad. For the forward-thinking one, it's much more about the use case. They may want to use iPads for lower grade levels, Chromebooks for middle-school students, and TechBooks for high-school students."
Tullman adds the funding will go toward expanding sales and marketing team to increase its market penetration in the Midwest and East Coast.
