EdTech Startup Wize Raises US$3 Million to Enhance the Online Learning Experience for Students

Delivery of highly tailored course content prevents learning loss due to COVID-19 and helps students realize their personal potential

VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Wize (wizeprep.com), a fast-growing online education platform that delivers course-specific video tutorials and exam-like practice problems for high school, college, and university students across North America, today announced that it has raised US$3 million in funding.

The funds will be used to develop and launch a new, more intuitive learning platform, and accelerate growth in content development across all grades, including the addition of MCAT and LSAT test prep. In addition, funding will be used to accelerate the company's expansion across Canada and into the U.S., and to further round out the team of education, UX, and development talent who will continue to evolve the Wize platform and offering, enabling it to become the world's leading provider of online education for course-specific learning.

"The Wize platform already has a track record of success in developing and delivering superior course-tailored content, having helped over 70,000 students across North America with thousands of courses available on-demand," says Cyrus Moradian, CEO, and Co-Founder of Wize. He adds: "We expect this momentum to accelerate as we continue our relentless focus on expanding our offering in a way that works best for students and parents."

According to HolonIQ¹, the education sector is starved of capital compared to other sectors, which means governments and institutions have not been able to keep up with digitizing learning. This was compounded in 2020 with the onset of COVID-19, which shone a light on the impact of underfunding in education. However, it also highlighted the value of Wize's supplemental online learning platform, which builds learning programs that directly match high school and post-secondary course syllabuses. The under-digitization of education is the primary driver behind an expected EdTech industry compound annual growth rate of 15 percent from $157B in 2018 to $420B by 2025², and Wize expects to be a meaningful contributor to that growth.

"Wize is passionately focused on helping people reach their potential and they deeply understand that we all learn in wildly different ways. Our educational institutions were not designed for that, and this last year has made that glaringly clear," says Chris Bruzzo, EVP Marketing and Commercial at Electronic Arts, who has been advising Wize alongside a group of prominent angel investors and venture capital firms Luma Launch and Panache Ventures. He adds: "During the pandemic, the Wize team accelerated their plans to aid learners at every level -- high school, college and university, and post-graduate education. Sure, it's a massive business opportunity, but the Wize experience is entirely focused on empowering the human opportunity."

Moradian concludes: "What truly sets Wize apart is our commitment to working with educators who are highly skilled and passionate about simplifying complex concepts on a platform that allows for complete personalization based on courses taught at a student's academic institution. This focus on personalization in everything we do is what will allow Wize to become a first-choice provider among students and parents at high school and post-secondary institutions and is what will propel us to become a formidable leader in online learning."

About Wize

Founded in 2017, Wize empowers students to realize their personal potential. Wize has evolved its platform into a comprehensive learning tool and aims to provide any high school, college, or university student in North America with access to course-specific video tutorials, practice problems, and 1:1 tutoring. Today, Wize courses cover grades 9-12 tailored to provincial curriculums in Canada as well as thousands of first-year college and university courses across North America, as well as MCAT and LSAT test prep. Whether students need a quick answer from an expert tutor, prepare for an exam, or anything in between, Wize empowers students with a study experience that is tailored to their course and study needs. To date, Wize has helped over 70,000 students across North America. Ninety-eight percent of Wize's paying customers (2020) indicated studying with Wize improved their grades, and 96% said that using Wize saved them time³.

Learn more about Wize at www.wizeprep.com 

Sources

1. www.holoniq.com/edtech/10-charts-that-explain-the-global-education-technology-market/ 
2. Education Technology & eLearning Insights, AGC Partners, January 2019
3. Wize survey of paying customers, September-December 2020

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SOURCE Wize