Copenhagen-based Labster, an edtech startup that sells virtual science laboratory simulations to schools, has raised $60M (approx €49.4M) in its Series C round of funding. The round brings Labster’s total capital raised to $100M (approx €82.4M).
Investors in this round.
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (known as “a16z”) – a new investor in the company. The venture capital fund has nearly $16.6B (approx €13.69B) in assets under management.
In addition, the round also saw participation from existing investors including GGV Capital, Owl Ventures, Balderton Capital, David Helgason, founder of Unity Technologies, Northzone, Swisscom Ventures, and EduCapital.
Use of the funds
The raised capital will be utilised by the company to accelerate global expansion and in the development of new science courses.
“One of the biggest questions we asked ourselves throughout 2020 was how we could help improve learning outcomes and dramatically increase the motivation of the many students forced to learn from home. This round of funding will allow us to accelerate our global expansion and development of new science courses so we can help millions of more students,” says Michael Bodekaer Jensen, Founder & CEO of Labster.
Everything about Labster
Founded in 2011 by Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde and Michael Bodekaer Jensen, Labster is developing an interactive virtual laboratory simulation that is designed to stimulate students’ curiosity and highlight the connection between science and the real world. Labster’s mission is to engage and stimulate the natural curiosity of students.
The company claims that its simulations have been proven to be a learning tool for in-person university and high school education, and have also been an essential resource to many hybrid and online courses. It works in collaboration with over 2,000 colleges, universities, and high schools including MIT, Yale, ETH Zürich, the University of Cambridge, and Imperial College.
Labster’s core team has about 200 employees and currently operates in over more than 70 countries. As the company looks for expansion, it is now hiring across teams such as engineering, product, sales, and customer success.
The company will establish operations in South America this spring to serve educators and students with virtual lab simulations for hybrid, remote, and in-person learning modalities.
Mads Bonde, founder, and chairman of Labster cites the company’s learning product as the reason for its growth. “The pandemic has clearly shown that a lot of edtechs fail because it merely brings old teaching methods online, without tapping into the many technological possibilities that are leveraged for consumer apps and games. Students are bored and we’re losing out on the potential for so many future scientists.”
Bonde further adds, “Labster’s game-based platform makes learning addictive. Our approach stimulates students’ natural curiosity and attains much higher learning outcomes. In the future, we will see new scientists, healthcare professionals, and science-literate adults who were first trained in a Labster simulation.”
Labster is looking to grow its core offerings and is exploring additional ways to extend its platform to students who may not have laptops or broadband Internet service. In the future, the platform may use mobile devices to provide access to virtual lab simulations to students.
In April 2019, Labster raised $21M (nearly €19M) in Series B funding from Balderton Capital, Northzone, Swisscom Ventures, Nordic Makers, David Helgason, EduCapital and Entangled Group.
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