CogBooks, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based educational tech company, raised £1.75m in funding.
Backers included DC Thomson Ventures, Nesta Impact Investments and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.
The company intends to use the funds to extend its international reach.
For over ten years CogBooks has been pioneering the use of adaptive learning technology, with a real focus on personalised learning for students. Highly rated in reports commissioned by the Gates Foundation,
Led by CEO Jim Thompson, CogBooks provides an adaptive learning platform that intelligently personalizes learning for each student in real time in order to improve learning outcomes and retention. It can be used as a massive scale stand-alone on-line learning solution or integrated with customers’ existing systems such as MOOCs or Learning Management Systems.
The company serves publishers and institutions in the US and UK post-secondary education market, including Edinburgh University, the OCR exam board and others.
DC Thomson Ventures
DC Thomson Ventures is the venture capital arm of DC Thomson and has a remit to focus on investment opportunities in early-stage companies. The company is interested in a variety of sectors including digital media, advertising, e-commerce, education, gaming and healthcare. DC Thomson Ventures operates two innovation centres for startups, IDEALondon and IDEAScotland and has built strong relationships with a number of startup accelerators including Seedcamp.
This is the latest edtech investment for DC Thomson Ventures. CogBooks strengthens the company’s existing portfolio which includes Twig, an award-winning digital media company that creates film-based learning resources used by educational institutions around the world.
DC Thomson Ventures will launch a new website in the coming weeks.
DC Thomson
DC Thomson is a private company and one of the leading publishing houses in the UK. Headquartered in Dundee, Scotland the company’s publishing portfolio includes newspapers, magazines, comics and books.
The company has diversified into new media, digital technology, retail, radio and television through investment interests.
The DC Thomson Group includes global genealogy company DC Thomson Family History and leading IT business services provider brightsolid and the company has established startup accelerator centres in both Shoreditch (IDEALondon) and Dundee (IDEAScotland) to identify and nurture potential future investment prospects.
Nesta Impact Investments
Nesta Impact Investments is a £17.6 million social investment fund, backed by Big Society Capital, Omidyar Network and Nesta. It was launched in October 2012 and helps tackle the major challenges faced by older people, children and communities in the UK by investing in life-changing innovations.
The fund is run by Nesta Investment Management (NIM), which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation. NIM is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to manage and invest funds on behalf of Nesta and external investors.
Scottish Investment Bank
The Scottish Investment Bank is the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It manages a suite of funds including the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Venture Fund, which are partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); the Scottish Seed Fund, the Scottish Recycling Fund and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund.
SIB is also the cornerstone investor in the privately-managed Scottish Loan Fund and an investor in Epidarex Capital’s life sciences fund. These support Scotland’s SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to capital. SIB also provides a team of financial readiness specialists to help companies prepare for new investment and more easily access finance.