Maybe it’s been a few years since you had that nightmare where you show up to school for a test and you’ve forgotten all of the answers, but education is a lot more frightening and difficult now than it was then. Funding is continually being cut and technology is creating increasing divides between the traditional institution and the democratization of information available to students. That’s what gives these big names in EdTech so much pull. They’re not just bridging the gap between schools, teachers, and students. They’re also closing time warps of the stalwart past like digital Dr. Who’s. Equal parts inventor and adventurer, these are companies to pay attention to in 2018.
Edwin
Although this startup is fresh out of Y Combinator, it’s going to be huge. Edwin is an AI-powered English tutor. Using the best of natural language processing, machine learning, speech technology, and industry experience, they bring a highly personalized curriculum and adaptive learning plans to students around the world.
Studypool
According to Entrepreneur.com, this EdTech startup has raised $2.3 million in seed funding, and has helped over a million students, offering services from over 40,000 verified tutors. Studypool keeps the learning process going inside and outside of the classroom by connecting students with questions with tutors that can answer them.
DuoLingo
Having been awarded Apple’s iPhone App of the Year and Android’s Best of the Best, Duolingo is an EdTech company that’s on a mission to bring free language education to the world. With over 200 million users, Duolingo has raised US $108.3 million to date from investors including Union Square Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Capital G (formerly Google Capital) and most recently, Drive Capital.
Peergrade
Peergrade is a free online platform that allows teachers to create online assignments and specify the criteria for evaluation so that as students turn-in their assignments, other students can grade it first. Peergrade is dedicated to giving students a better learning experience with faster and more thorough feedback while saving time and money.
Repl.it
On a mission to make programming more accessible, Repl.it is an education and staging platform that allows users to code and deploy apps from their browsers. Widely used in computer science classrooms around the world, they are focused on building powerful yet simple tools and platforms for educators, learners, and developers.
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