ClassWallet Closes $1.5 Million Series Seed Round
Idea Bulb Ventures Leads Round; ClassWallet Breaking New Ground at the Intersection of Financial and Education Technology Sectors
MIAMI, April 17, 2016 — ClassWallet, fast-becoming the leading platform for school funds disbursement and tracking, has closed a $1.5 million round of seed financing. Total funding raised to date is $4.03 million.
The priced round was led by Idea Bulb Ventures. Idea Bulb Ventures is the U.S. based Investment company working with China’s Innovation Works, the early stage venture capital firm established by the founding President of Google China Dr. Kai-Fu Lee. Other investors include Techstars Ventures and William Guttman, as well as several education and financial technology angel investors.
ClassWallet’s patent-pending technology combines a virtual wallet with an online marketplace. Partners such as Amazon, Office Depot, School Specialty, Scholastic, Nearpod and many more are in the ClassWallet marketplace and accept ClassWallet as form for payment. What’s unique about ClassWallet is that partners return SKU-level data to ClassWallet, affording school administration and funders with detailed reporting and pre-approval permissions on every item purchased, otherwise obtained through paper receipts or laborious purchase order processes. In addition, DiscoverCard and Marqeta, the program manager behind Facebook and eBay’s card platforms, joined forces with ClassWallet to power the ClassWallet debit card for offline purchases such as professional development, field trips and more.
ClassWallet’s unique hybrid of financial and ecommerce technologies enables the Company to eliminate paper receipts, reimbursements and forms for non-bid purchasing in a manner other companies cannot. “We have a number of investments in the education technology sector and we love what ClassWallet is doing,” says Chris Evdemon, Partner at Idea Bulb. “They are solving a huge problem with an innovative SaaS application. We are excited by ClassWallet’s traction in K12 education and see universal application for its technology.”
ClassWallet’s popularity is growing fast. “ClassWallet’s active user base grew over 400% last year and the Company has already booked customers to exceed 400% growth in 2016,” says Jamie Rosenberg, ClassWallet founder and CEO. The platform is being used within some of the largest school districts across the United States including Chicago, Newark, and Broward.
“It’s great to see the continued success of our Techstars Accelerator alumni,” says Techstars Managing Partner Mark Solon. “ClassWallet has created a solution to a problem that has no easy fix. Its continued growth has been impressive.”
About ClassWallet
ClassWallet is the leading end-to-end digital solution to manage funding within school systems. The platform combines funds disbursement, e-commerce, a reloadable debit card and tracking in a fully integrated manner designed for maximum simplicity and accountability. ClassWallet brings accountability to a $23 billion system that relies heavily on cash, checks, and purchase orders that add up to 40 percent transaction costs and a fund-spend-track lifecycle that takes weeks. ClassWallet reduces these transaction costs to less than 5 percent, and the transaction lifecycle to same day.
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