Newsela Raises $1.2M in Seed Funding

Newsela, a NYC-based online platform to help students master reading and critical thinking, raised $1.2m in seed funding.

The round was led by New Schools Venture Fund and Kapor Capital, with participation from Kaplan Ventures, Silicon Badia, David and Joannie Fischer, Brigette Lau, Zac Zeitlin, Jennifer Coogan and Isaac Taylor, Walter Winshall, and Margaret McKenna and existing investors.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its offering of daily news articles at multiple reading levels and Common Core-aligned quizzes.

Led by founder and CEO Matthew Gross, Newsela publishes daily news articles from top news sources, each rewritten at five different reading levels from grades 3 through 12. It adapts to each student’s reading ability and interests so they always get right content while having the power to stretch themselves.
Articles are paired with quizzes aligned to the new Common Core State Standards so teachers can track students’ progress daily. Teachers have also insights customized to students and recommended actions they can take to improve specific students’ reading comprehension.

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Newsela Beta is available for free.

The company is hiring.

FinSMEs

11/10/2013

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