KNEWTON: Whopping $33 million D series for New York-based Knewton, led by Founders Fund and includes education publisher Pearson, as well as previous investors, Accel, Bessemer and FirstMark. TechCrunch puts Knewton's valuation at north of $150 million. Knewton got its start in the lucrative test-prep business and has been building an "adaptive" engine that presents learners with different types of problems depending on how they're doing. So far, it's operated in the post secondary space. But Knewton will use this cash--along with the partnership with Pearson and, on the horizon, other significant publishers--to get into K-12. That move will likely be welcomed by school programs hunting for "adaptive" language arts programs. Jose Ferreira, Knewton's blunt-speaking founder and CEO, tells EdSurge that Knewton will likely launch its K-12 programs in 2012. "You can only be competitive if you convince publishers to adopt you as a standard," Jose says. Stay tuned.
