Today we are announcing our third investment for the Revolution Growth fund: Echo360. Echo360 is a pioneer in the emerging “blended learning” sector. It enables students to mix online materials with classroom experiences to make learning more effective, efficient, and convenient. Echo360 works with colleges and universities to capture professors’ lectures and supporting materials (like a PowerPoint shown in class) as digital video and files, and then make that material available online for students to watch at their convenience on their computers, iPads – even their smartphones.
Echo360 offers a win-win-win solution for students, professors, and universities. If a student misses a class, or just wants to improve their understanding of the material, the student can watch the lecture again at their convenience, as often as they like. Professors get data on what their students are watching, and can use that to inform their future lectures, or to record supplemental explanatory videos. And universities can provide this incredible learning tool at a cost of a few dollars per student per semester.
Education is the key to our nation’s future, and using technology to improve education is a cause that has been important to me since our earliest days at AOL. The learning experience has not kept pace with the digital revolution, but at Revolution we believe we are on the cusp of significant change. That’s why we’re excited to now be backing Echo360, a company that has built momentum and trust with hundreds of universities. We hope our investment will enable Echo360 to expand the number of universities it partners with, and also expand the number of classrooms that are Echo360-enabled. Indeed, our goal over the next five years is to reach half of all U.S. college students with the Echo360 capabilities. And while the initial focus will be on expanding the core “capture” market, over time we believe the universities and professors Echo360 works with will usher in a wave of innovation around blended learning, or what some call “flipped” classrooms. You can read more about our aspirations here, or by checking out the Echo360 website.
When we announced the Revolution Growth fund we said our focus would be on companies East of the Mississippi, with a particular focus on the DC region. The fact that our first three investments – FedBid, Resonate, and now Echo360 – are all in the DC area shows how far this region’s entrepreneurial economy has developed over the past decade. While we are in active discussions with companies in other regions and it is therefore highly unlikely our next three investments will also be DC-based companies, we are proud to be supporting our region by backing three great “speed-up” companies that we believe are poised for tremendous growth!
Learn more about Echo360 in this video:
