Get ahead of the homeschooling efforts

July 24 2020

Pressure to reopen schools in the fall is increasing. Yet school districts still have a lot of safety measures to iron out. Some parents, burdened by childcare and homeschooling, are taking matters into their own hands and figuring out a solution for themselves.

Neighborhood-based Facebook groups and bulletin boards are populated with ads looking for other willing parents to form an isolation pod with their kids and hire teachers to educate their children and share the costs.

This pod idea has started to gain momentum, and many tech platforms built to schedule substitute teachers have now pivoted to facilitate pod formation all across the nation.

Emily Oster, a Brown University economist who writes about parenting, has predicted that clusters of home-schooling families are “going to happen everywhere.”

Prior to the pandemic, homeschooling involved big expenses to hire teachers and childcare workers. But by pooling resources together, families will have a lower cost to educate their children in this difficult time. There is the potential for a home-schooling boom that is more than just a niche trend among the wealthy.

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Homeschool Startups:

K12 Private Academy, a program operated by K12 International Academy, is a private online college preparatory school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. K12 International Academy, doing business as K12 Private Academy for the 2020-2021 school year, is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI) and is recognized as a diploma-granting institution by the Virginia Council for Private Education. In addition to accreditation, many of the school’s courses meet NCAA requirements. Credentialed teachers deliver a personalized education experience using the online classroom platform provided by K12 Inc.

BrainPOP puts a fun twist on learning, across a wide array of subjects, with individual topics each given a separate page with a cartoonish, kid-friendly video introduction, written info, quizzes, and games. Students and educators can even make their own movies by compiling images, animations, and other elements. BrainPOP is offering schools free access while schools are closed.

The Scholastic Book Wizard app allows users to create an inventory of all titles in a classroom library. You can also designate how many copies of the book you own and append additional notes. The app allows you to manually search (by typing the name of a title, author, or keyword). Most importantly, the app has a scanner that allows you to simply scan the bar code to quickly search the database for book information.

SoftBank’s Chip Company Arm Said to Attract Nvidia Interest

Arm Ltd., the semiconductor designer owned by SoftBank Group Corp., is attracting takeover interest from graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp., people with knowledge of the matter said.
[Read more].

Airbnb approached by blank-check company to go public

Home rental startup Airbnb has been approached about going public through a merger with a blank-check acquisition company, a novel way of listing on the stock market that is gaining traction. [Read more].

Since last week, PrivCo has added:
1422 Profile Updates | 199 M&A Deals | 176 Funding Activities

Funding & Deal Highlights:

Sotero, a Burlington, MA-based comprehensive data protection company, raises $5M in a new funding round.

Olema Oncology, a San Francisco, CA-based biopharmaceutical company developing innovative targeted therapies for women’s cancers, closes a $54M Series B financing.

Vesigen Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology company advancing therapies directed to intracellular targets using a fusogenic extracellular vesicle delivery technology, raises $28.5M in Series A financing.

Seer raises another $55M and finally reveals proteomic tech. Seer has developed over 250 nanoparticles for its Proteograph. These different particles, when put in the blood, attract different proteins that bond to chemical groups on the surface, forming a “corona,” or a kind of molecular halo around the protein.

Sift, the modern people directory on a mission to make work more human, announces the successful completion of a $3M Series A round of financing. The investment is led by Detroit-based Rock Holdings and will be used to expand Sift's sales and marketing teams as they respond to rising demand from a marketplace hungry for digital workplace solutions in the wake of COVID-19. Sift also announces that Mike Malloy, Chief Amazement Officer at Rock Central and Jared Stasik, Partner at Detroit Venture Partners, will be joining Sift Board of Directors.

Swoop, based in Los Angeles, raises $3.2M in seed funding led by Signia Venture Partners, South Park Commons, and a handful of angel investors to build a tech solution for group mobility owners. The fragmented industry of vehicle owners will now be able to effortlessly book, dispatch, track and manage all their rides through Swoop's SaaS tool.

Chicago food-delivery platform Chowbus secures a $33M Series A round of funding to expand its tool that connects diners with mom-and-pop restaurants and stores offering high-quality, authentic Asian food.

Digital-media startup Wave.tv raises $32M to fund its expansion plans despite the blow the coronavirus pandemic dealt to its chief subject area—sports.

OrthoFX unveils a new suite of clear dental aligner technologies aided by a $13M Series A round of funding.

Perceptyx, a leading employee survey and people analytics platform, announces the acquisition of the Employee Insight business of Kantar, one of the largest data, insights, and consulting companies that has become a standard bearer in employee surveys during its 25-year history. This acquisition significantly strengthens the Perceptyx platform, which makes enterprises more responsive and agile through targeted employee feedback and data-driven insights.

Waste Pro acquires AmeriSouth Recycling’s business in the Atlanta, GA area.

KPS Capital Partners, LP announces that, through a newly formed affiliate, it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AM General LLC from an affiliate of MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Nexelis, a provider of advanced assay development and laboratory testing services in the infectious, oncologic, and metabolic diseases fields, acquires AIT Bioscience, an integrated bioanalytical laboratory with LC-MS and immunoassay testing capabilities and operates a paperless FDA-inspected facility supported by state-of-the-art electronic systems.

KAM Yacht Sales, a subsidiary of Lormax Stern, announces the acquisition of Luke Brown Yachts, known for their multifaceted services which include premier listings, charters and representing clients seeking to build custom yachts.

Amynta Group, a premier insurance services provider of property & casualty and warranty protection products and services, acquires Pivotal Solutions Inc., based in Fishers, Indiana. Founded in 1999, Pivotal Solutions is a strategic partner to automotive dealer groups, providing F&I solutions, training and development to drive customer engagement and deliver superior F&I performance for its dealers.

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