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We got an exclusive look at the pitch deck that math education startup Innovamat used to raise $21 million in new funding
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- Innovamat is a Barcelona-based edtech startup that uses a new way of teaching math to K-8 students.
- Founded in 2017, Innovamat already offers its curriculum to more than 2,000 schools worldwide.
- Now, the team has raised $21 million in Series A funding and will expand into the US.
The idea for Innovamat, a startup focused on developing a new way to teach math to K-8 students, came to the company’s cofounders when they were students themselves.
Innovamat’s three cofounders, Andreu Dotti, Isaac Piedra, and Àlex Espinet Pérez-Muelas, all studied together at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. In 2015, Dotti and Piedra spent their free time working as engineering and math teachers at their university’s neighboring academy, which helps first year students study and pass important qualifying exams.
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The two bonded over their love of math and engineering, but had qualms with the academy’s curriculum and study guides, because they focused too much on rote memorization and not enough on problem solving and critical thinking.
They decided to ask some local teachers about their experience and found that they were eager for a more engaging math curriculum, so the two decided to develop one on the side, ,outside of their class work. Dotti and Piedra approached Pérez-Muelas in 2017 to come on as the CTO for their side project and build out any technical programming or software, and that curriculum became the basis for Innovamat.
The startup launched in 2017, and since those university days, it has expanded to 2,000 schools across Europe and Latin America, launched a pilot program in the US, and just closed a $21 million Series A round led by Reach Capital. Kibo Ventures, Bonsai Partners, Axon Partners, 10x and Dozen Investments also participated in the round.
Innovamat combines traditional classroom teaching methods, like group instruction, with virtual games on tablets, to help students learn how to solve different math problems based on real-world scenarios. The software also includes tests that teachers can use to assess students and track their learning development.
The startup’s team, which includes over 40 teachers and doctorate-level researchers in mathematics, developed the curriculum based on research from top Spanish universities and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s program for international student assessment.
“What a mathematician does in the real world is finding patterns, finding new solutions, asking new questions,” said Piedra, “so we try to bring what a mathematician does into a product that our teachers can use in the classroom.”
Students spend the first three days of the week on group problem solving work, and then one day on virtual learning games hosted on tablets. Then, the student performance scores and data are compiled and sent to the teacher to assess and shift the lesson plan accordingly.
A recent study by the company found that students who use Innovamat score 11% higher on standardized tests, which proved appealing to investors like the Reach Capital team that backed the company based on its efficacy data and its unique approach to training both teachers and students in a standardized, efficient way. Reach Capital partner Esteban Sosnik also told Insider that the startup’s international growth and traction outside of Spain was particularly promising.
Since pitching investors, Innovamat has grown to 320 full time employees and is currently offering its curriculum to over 15,000 teachers in Spain, Italy, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil and Peru. Its pilot program in New Jersey is yielding promising results as well, Piedra said.
Check out the 13-slide pitch deck that Innovamat used to raise $21 million in Series A funding:
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