Founder and CEO of Bijles Aan Huis and Lernigo, Florian Zandbergen | Image credit: LinkedIn
Utrecht-based SchoolTalent, a fast-growing edtech platform, announced that it has raised €850K in a fresh round of growth funding. This capital comes on top of the company’s previously raised €500K funding in the summer of 2021.
The company operates in the Netherlands under the name Bijles Aan Huis, and as Lernigo in Germany.
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Capital utilisation
SchoolTalent says that the raised funds will be used, among other things, to further improve the didactic quality of the platform for students and tutors. In addition, the capital will be utilised for further expansion in both the Netherlands and Germany.
Besides, Bijles Aan Huis also looks to soon set up a programme for children from underprivileged families by giving them access to free tutoring. The goal is to provide a total of 500,000 students per year with tutoring services by 2024.
Aims to create “the most user-friendly tutoring platform”
Founded in 2018 by Florian Zandbergen, SchoolTalent looks toward a fairer tutoring market. The mission of SchoolTalent is to provide as many students as possible with ‘high-quality’ one-on-one tutoring. “Especially now, this is important because many students have fallen behind in school. In addition, the tutoring market often consists of expensive providers who try to sell a poorly screened service through unfair sales tactics,” says Zandbergen.
The young entrepreneur believes that with the use of technology, SchoolTalent is building a platform that will eventually make high-quality tutoring accessible to every student.
Using artificial intelligence, the company’s platform makes it easier to find the right (screened) tutor. Once the student and tutor have found each other, the platform supports both the student and tutor with didactic support, practice materials and more.
During the pandemic, SchoolTalent made its online tutoring platform available to schools for free, so they could be ready for the switch to online teaching faster.
According to a statement from SchoolTalent, the number of European investments in the edtech sector has increased enormously in the last year. European investment companies invested over €2.5B in edtech in 2022, up from €700M in 2021. Investors see the impact of technology on the education market and are lining up to fund fast-growing startups.
How was Bijles Aan Huis born?
Florian Zandbergen recalls, “As a little boy, I had a passion for everything except school. My parents worked in education, at the same school that I reluctantly cycled to every day. They regularly mentioned how hard the work was and that they were unable to give students the personal attention they needed. I ignored this information and failed to see that as a difficult student I was part of this nationwide problem.”
“Until I got a call from a colleague of my parents. He told me that my parents were concerned about my progress and behaviour towards teachers. That was when I realised I was part of the problem my parents discussed almost every day at the dinner table,” says Zandbergen.
It was during that bike ride that Zandbergen promised himself to do everything in his power to not be part of the problem, but the solution. “I went from a difficult HAVO student to a stable VWO student. My passion for education soon translated into tutoring.” And gradually, this grew into a platform with which Zandbergen can contribute to education.
With an increasing number of students, Zandbergen’s responsibility to continue to deliver quality also grew. It is the feedback and interaction with students, parents and teachers that ensured that Bijles Aan Huis was formed into an environment where students receive the personal attention they need.
“To this day I continue to listen to the promise of that boy on his bicycle, which makes the right guidance accessible to more and more students,” adds Zandbergen.
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