ClassWallet, a platform for school funds disbursement and tracking, has closed a $1.5 million round of seed financing, bringing total fundingto date to $4.03 million, the company announced Sunday.
The priced round was led by Idea Bulb Ventures, a U.S. based Investment company working with China’s Innovation Works, an 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.
“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. "We are excited by ClassWallet’s traction in K12 education and see universal application for its technology.”
ClassWallet’s patent-pending technology combines a virtual wallet with an online marketplace, the company aid. Partners such as Amazon, Office Depot, School Specialty, Scholastic, Nearpod and others in the ClassWallet marketplace accept ClassWallet as form for payment.
ClassWallet 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.
Founder and CEO Jamie Rosenberg said ClassWallet’s user base grew over 400 percent last year "and the company has already booked customers to exceed 400 percent growth in 2016.” Customers include some of the largest school districts across the United States including Chicago, Newark, and Broward.