Abre, a K-12 modern data solution, announced a significant milestone with the closing of a Series A investment round led by PeakSpan Capital, with follow-on participation from JumpStart Ventures, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, and Golden Angels Investors.
The $24 million in funding will support Abre in its mission to open learning communities by connecting what matters. Abre improves student outcomes by transforming the way all stakeholders in and out of schools make comprehensive data-informed decisions. The investment will be used to continue innovating Abre’s data solution – an intentional blend of technology focused on better data intelligence for all stakeholders supporting students in and out of the classroom, and services designed to meet the unique needs of each district partner. Additionally, the funding will enable Abre to expand its market reach, strengthen its team across key departments, and capitalize on emerging opportunities across the EdTech landscape.
“We are thrilled to have the confidence of such a distinguished group of investors at PeakSpan Capital and the ongoing support from many of our early investors,” said James Stoffer, CEO of Abre. “This investment not only validates our vision and strategy but also provides us with the resources needed to accelerate our growth and continue to deliver impactful solutions to our school and district clients as well as their administrators and staff, community partners, families, and students.”
Abre’s software serves as a one-stop-shop that integrates data from hundreds of EdTech platforms across a school district. These data points are integrated to paint a 360-degree view of a student across key areas of social-emotional well-being, enrollment, attendance, intervention, academic performance, and more, without requiring a huge amount of effort from administrators or building staff. The company’s commitment to streamlining processes, enhancing collaboration, and improving student outcomes has garnered widespread recognition and adoption among school districts nationwide. “We partnered with Abre to compile all of our information in one place to create in-depth student profiles that provide information about the whole child, enabling us to view data by teacher, intervention, grade level, school, and district to make more informed decisions,” said Dr. Karen Cheser, Superintendent at Durango School District 9-R. “This allowed us to individualize their education and provide a variety of tailored, relevant enrichment opportunities to strengthen these interests and help prepare our students for a well-suited career path, ultimately leading to a fulfilling life doing what they love.”
Despite the influx of capital and classroom technology precipitated by the pandemic, K-12 schools and districts are still struggling with achievement gaps, student well-being concerns, chronic absenteeism, teacher shortages, and more. Schools and districts need data solutions to help address these issues, otherwise they not only risk students falling further behind, but also face a potential loss of funding directly tied to attendance, performance, and enrollment levels. As districts continue to reevaluate budgeted, allocated resources and what is and is not working to support student outcomes, Abre provides data-informed insights to enable confident financial decision-making to drive better outcomes for students. Through the Abre platform, key stakeholders are able to identify patterns and trends with data and support students who are struggling through targeted interventions and strategies.
The company also announced a new governing board:
- James Stoffer – CEO/President/Chair, Abre
- Chris Rose – Co-Founder/SVP of Product, Abre
- Sanket Merchant – Partner, PeakSpan Capital
- Ashley Keating – Partner, CincyTech
- Paula Reed – Chief Strategy Officer, Teachstone
PeakSpan Capital is a leading growth equity firm with $1.5 billion in assets under management (“AUM”), investing exclusively in high-growth business-to-business (or “B2B”) software companies. PeakSpan is committed to its mission of being the partner of choice for best-in-class, emerging growth-stage software entrepreneurs and teams who are looking to scale sensibly and capitalize on strategic, high-quality market opportunities. Through a highly focused and proprietary data-driven strategy, PeakSpan partners with scale-up software entrepreneurs with the goal of delivering the best risk-adjusted outcomes. Sanket Merchant, a Partner at PeakSpan Capital and Head of the firm’s EdTech practice, led the investment and will be joining the Abre Board of Directors. He noted, “Abre sits squarely in a thesis we’ve been developing for years and highlights the importance (and opportunity) behind data intelligence. Districts across the nation are struggling to operationalize student data and effectively provide students with academic, emotional, and community support. The data is alarming, and we must do much more to transform student outcomes fundamentally. We could not be more thrilled to partner with the Abre team to capitalize on the forward opportunity – democratizing data intelligence, transforming student outcomes, and creating what we believe will be the central hub for the modern U.S. K-12 district.”
Source: PR Newswire
