Simpleclub is receiving a €2 million investment from HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. The funds will be used to expand the educational content of the learning app, which has more than one million users. Simpleclub's content – currently over 3,000 learning videos, 5,000 exercises, and 850 summaries for grades eight to 13 – is expected to cover all grades and subjects from fifth grade onwards by December. To this end, the team will be expanded from the current 37 permanent employees to 50. EdTech-Startup has grown so far without external financing and is already profitable with a seven-figure annual turnover.
“So far, we have built Simpleclub without outside capital and have been profitable since 2018,”
explained Alexander Giesecke, co-founder of the company.
“With HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, we have now found the right partner to support us with two million euros at exactly the right time to achieve our goal by the end of 2020: to offer students from the 5th grade onwards, as well as their teachers and parents, exactly the learning content they currently need.”
Simpleclub was founded by Alexander Giesecke and Nicolai Schork, who started together in 2012 in 11th grade with animated learning videos in math and then built up the company alongside their studies.
“Would have liked to invest more”
"Simpleclub is helping to close a long-overdue gap by making knowledge accessible and contemporary with its learning content. Over the past few years, Nico, Alex, and the young team have built one of the most successful and well-known learning platforms for students throughout Germany. We were extremely impressed by their success, but especially by their passion and determination. As a shareholder, we would have liked to invest more, but due to the team's profitability, two million euros is already enough to take the next step and invest in new growth areas."
supplemented Felix Klühr, Principal at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures.
"We don't want to miss the opportunity we've been given by the coronavirus pandemic to fundamentally change education. With Simpleclub, we're completely rethinking school. We will use the funding from HV Holtzbrinck Ventures to massively expand the vast knowledge network on which the app is based, and thus our learning content for students."
says Simpleclub co-founder Nicolai Schork.
Simpleclub app to become teaching material
The investment follows the launch of the newly developed Simpleclub app at the end of September. The revised app structure plays a key role: The learning content is not only organized by subject and sorted for all grade levels and federal states, but also by topic. This is intended to create a knowledge network in which the topics are interconnected and can be understood in context across subjects.
With this restructuring, Simpleclub also aims to change the scope of its learning app: Until now, the app was an add-on product in the afternoon market. Students used Simpleclub after school to study for exams or better understand class topics. In the future, the app will increasingly be used by teachers in the classroom or at home, thus becoming a core educational product.
