Series C Financing to Increase Deployment of Echo360 Technology and Big Data Platforms
RESTON, VA– (Marketwired) – Echo360, the global leader in digital technologies that improve learning, today announced it has closed a Series C growth equity round co-led by Duchossois Capital Management and a private family office. The financing will be used to accelerate deployment of the newly launched Echo360 Active Learning Platform, a SaaS learning and analytics solution for higher education.
“We believe Echo360 is poised to make a significant impact by improving education with learner analytics generated by the Active Learning Platform,” said Rohit Seth of Duchossois Capital Management. “Echo360 has the scale and product to make a difference, with 625 universities and colleges as customers, and over two million students using their digital learning platform.”
Higher education’s economic and delivery model is undergoing drastic change built around the core tenets of disruption: online media, mobile access, SaaS software, cloud storage, big data analytics, and social networks. These trends have driven the reinvention of the classroom led by the products from Echo360 including multimedia lecture capture, flipped classes, blended and distance learning. Realizing that critical needs are not being met, especially as all students are now digital-centric, investment in educational technology is estimated to increase dramatically from its $13 billion last year.
Echo360 recently announced the availability of its new Active Learning Platform that moves institutions from the analog lecture to the latest interactive teaching models. Using the Echo360 SaaS data platform, institutions can now easily execute the best in digital teaching methodologies with flipped classrooms, peer-to-peer learning, MOOCs and distance learning. Echo360 also pioneers new ways to measure student performance in the classroom and turns big data and student analytics into learning insights that improve student success and academic performance.
“We were fortunate to find a syndicate of investors co-led by two leading private equity firms that are passionate about changing education to improve learning outcomes,” said Fred Singer, CEO of Echo360. “With our next generation platform just launched, we now have the necessary funding to achieve our goal of having thousands of universities and tens of millions of students having the advantage of our technology.”
Additional funding in the syndicate included SWaN & Legend, CNF Investments, and existing investor Revolution Growth. The co-lead investors will each appoint a representative to join the Echo360 Board of Directors.
About Echo360:
Over two million students at 625 schools across 30 countries rely on Echo360 active learning technology to enhance their educational experience before, during and after class. Developed for educators by educators, Echo360 increases in-class participation with digital polling, provides a rich out-of-class experience by recording and publishing course instruction, and delivers deep usage analytics to help instructors respond to student needs. Students revisit lectures, collaborate with peers, and participate in class on smartphones, tablets, and laptops, wherever, whenever they choose. Echo360 was recognized with the Product Line Strategy of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan, is CSIA-certified for outstanding customer service and was named a Visionary Vendor in Educational Technology by IT research firm Basex. Echo360 is backed by Revolution Growth, which is led by Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, and Donn Davis.
