At the recent Impact Investment Summit, I had the privilege to moderate “Digital Horizons, Analogue Roots – Navigating Education For All”. Included on the panel were representatives from Cool.org, Learn Education, and the Pertame School, who are all looking for additional funding from impact investors.
Cool.org (www.cool.org) provides educators with real-world, curriculum-aligned teaching resources to teach students about social and environmental issues, thereby creating better outcomes for humanity. They have reached over 8,900 schools and over 6m students. Their premium service, Cool+, has professional development courses for teachers as well as 1,000s of lessons, presentation slides, videos, and factsheets. Jason Kimberley, the founder of Cool.org, shared his growth plans with the audience at the Summit, which will require $1-1.5m equity funding.
Learn Capital (www.learn.vc) is a US-based venture capital firm. With over $1bn in funds under management, Learn has invested in many leading edtech companies since launching in 2009 including Coursera, General Assembly, and Udemy. They believe that learning is the foundation of a thriving society.
The Pertame School (www.pertameschool.org) is a community-led language revival program empowering Pertame Elders to pass their language and cultural knowledge onto the next generation. Pertame is a severely endangered Central Australian indigenous language with only 20-30 fluent speakers. By operating a childcare centre with only Pertame spoken, a new generation of first language speakers is being created.
The Pertame School is the first Total Immersion Language Nest in Australia. Vanessa Farrelly, an educator at the centre, explained the benefits for the children of developing their identity using their own language. As a not-for-profit, they are largely funded by donations from foundations and are looking for additional funding to ensure that the centre can continue and to potentially support the development of more Total Immersion Language Nests.
If you would like to know more about the opportunities to invest in Cool.org, Learn Capital, or to support The Pertame School, please contact me at kerry.series@northstarimpact.com.au.