Sydney based global edtech startup Prosper Education has raised £2m from private investors in the UK. The funding will be used to expand the sales and marketing team in China, and expedite product development.
Co-Founder and CEO Martin Beeche said he was excited about the opportunities that closing this funding gave to Prosper to accelerate business growth and give children incredible beginnings.
“Prosper isn’t just an edtech provider, we are an investor in the future of children and their capacity. For our team, investors and advisory Board, this is what has driven every business decision since the company was founded.”
What exactly does Prosper Education do?
Established in late 2014, Prosper Education has developed RoyalABC, a complete language learning ecosystem for children aged 3-6 incorporating growth mindset and the 4 C’s of 21st century learning: critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration.
The RoyalABC British English curriculum is overlaid with cutting edge game design, artificial intelligence and best-in-class teaching methods in a fun and academically rigorous program.
RoyalABC has a robust pedagogy that has taken over two years of development through collaboration with leading educators, psychologists and game designers including Professor Carol Dweck from Stanford University who pioneered Growth Mindset and RMIT.
“Providing a disruptive learning platform that addresses the gaps in education globally is driven by the belief that with the right teaching and learning environment, children everywhere can prosper,” said Beeche, also a founding member of the EduGrowth Board, Australia’s edtech acceleration network.
As a premium brand, RoyalABC is targeted at the private pre-school market in China, valued at A$89bn in 2017. The company has plans to expand into Japan and SE Asia later this year.
Mr Beeche said that the integrated blended approach to learning had found strong early traction with the market, validated by a number of significant distribution deals across China since the company launched RoyalABC in mid 2017.
“What we recognised as soon as we engaged with the market was we had to have an ecosystem approach to learning. Kindergartens and teachers needed the best product possible to help them teach in the classroom, children needed to be given an education that would make them well rounded people, and parents needed to be kept fully informed and have the option to participate in their child’s learning.”
Prosper’s funding coincides with the appointment of two highly regarded education technology sector executives into the leadership team.
Former 3P and Learnosity senior executive Genevieve Gilmore has taken on the CPO role at Prosper. Genevieve was one of the founding team members of Mathletics and took them through to 5 million users worldwide and a stock market listing on the ASX. Genevieve was also an integral driver of the global expansion of online assessment technology company Learnosity.
James Guan, formerly VP of Technology and CTO at Pearson for Greater China with a stellar career in digital expansion and transformation in education, has taken on the Shanghai based CTO role at Prosper Education.
“As a company, embodying our values, our passion for education and growth mindset is so critical, in our products and our people. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to lead this next phase of growth for Prosper,” said Beeche.
