PATHBRITE: $4 million to San Francisco-based Pathbrite from existing investors, nonprofit, ACT and Rethink Education, with additional angel investors for this A2 round. Chief executive Heather Hiles says that the company is readying a significant product release later in March. The company has a staff of 15.
Pathbrite was originally a tool that anyone could use to create an online portfolio of their work. Students can still use it that way. But more recently, Pathbrite has refocused its efforts on building a tool that teachers can use to collect work and add assessments: Pathbrite lets teachers create templates of rubrics, scoring systems and other assessments and attach those to any assignments. "We have a clear focus on the classroom and on helping achieve learning outcomes," Hiles says. Teachers can see their class roster, upcoming assignments and track progress.
Hiles reports that Pathbrite is in use at more than 100 institutions, including both K-12 schools and universities. Strategic investor and partner, ACT, is also planning to incorporate Pathbrite into a website involving more social media that it has in the works. Pathbrite sells licenses to use its software directly to schools or makes it available through partners (which include Pearson). Stay tuned for the debut of the new Pathbrite look!