German startup Knowunity, a digital learning platform designed for and by students, has scooped €10 million in Series A funding. The investment round was led by Redalphine and Stride VC that invested in TechWolf along with participation from existing investors, including Project A and angel investors such as the World Cup-winning footballer Mario Götze and the founders of Booking.com and Preply.
Product development plans
Knowunity will use the proceeds of this financing round to drive the product development further in order to provide better support for students in their everyday school life. Also, it will focus on further market development in order to provide even more students with the best access to digital education.
“With Stride and Redalpine we now have found two seasoned, international lead investors who support our vision to build the global platform for students”, Benedict Kurz, 20-year-old co-founder and CEO of Knowunity, said. “We are very happy about the trust that has been placed in us once again by existing investors such as Project A and Mario Götze and are pleased about the support from well-known and experienced Angels such as the co-founders of Booking.com and Preply”.
“From the first moment we met Benedict and the founding team, we knew we had an exceptionally talented group in front of us,” said Gabbi Cahane, Partner at Stride.vc. “Considering the whole founding team was sitting in the classroom less than two years ago, what they’ve achieved to date is outstanding. Their unique set of insights and ability to execute on them means they’ve found a way to ‘crack the code’ for this audience and this problem. Thanks to the power of UGC and strong network effects.”
Sebastian Becker, Partner at Redalpine added, ”We are incredibly excited about Knowunity as the team has created an education product with unrivaled virality and user retention in multiple geographies. Therefore, we believe the product has the potential to emerge as a global winner and radically improve how students consume and engage with educational content.”
Europe’s fastest-growing edtech
Founded in 2020 by Benedict Kurz (CEO), Lucas Hild, Gregor Weber, Julian Prigl and Yannik Prigl in Sindelfingen near Stuttgart, Knowunity has rapidly become the fastest-growing edtech app in Europe with over 2.4 million users. Currently, it is the most popular learning app in Germany with over 20,000 ratings and has been expanding to new geographies with strong initial traction. Following successful launches in Austria and Switzerland, the company launched in France at the beginning of the year. In late April, the app was launched in Poland as well.
Knowunity provides a clean, vertically-focused mobile app that covers everything a student needs to have a great learning experience. It’s entirely peer-to-peer and enables top students or “Knowers” to create and publish their own educational content to help “Learners” better understand course curriculum that is tailored to their own country and in their own language. Users engage through direct messaging and real support is provided via group learning and the power of the community.
Through the platform’s creator tools, the best Knowers build strong content, profiles and followings that can be amplified both in-app and externally so they can amplify their reach and generate a viral loop back to the product.
