Zen educationThe online marketplace that connects schools with teachers has raised $37 million in a Series B funding round.
The increase takes place between a a growing teacher shortage crisis Both sides of the pondwith recent report of the ADP Research Institute notes that the global pandemic has exacerbated existing supply and demand imbalances due to “stagnant wages and a stressful work environment.”
Founded in London in 2017, Zen Educate replaces traditional external recruitment agencies that always use analog workflows and charge exorbitant fees. Zen Educate digitizes all the pieces through a self-service platform, eliminating costly middlemen from the equation in the process. Through the platform, teachers and schools create profiles, and Zen Educate can routinely match each entities based on their compatibility – this uses data reminiscent of proximity, skills, experience and other preferences.
Schools can use Zen Educate to hire full-time employees, but teachers also can use it to more easily find temps or part-time roles that fit into their lives.
“As in all areas, teachers are looking for more flexibility in their work, so there is a greater demand for flexible work solutions in education like Zen Educate,” Zen Educate co-founder and CEO Slava Kremerman told TechCrunch.
What’s more, Zen Educate also guarantees higher pay considering it takes less of a cut than incumbent agencies
“The average take rate in the incumbent industry is 35-38%,” Kremerman said. “We are just over half of that. As a result, teachers earn more and schools save money.”
Expansion
Zen Educate raised a $21 million A round in late 2022 because it seeks to enter the US market after a soft launch in Minneapolis. The company currently operates in 4 additional states – Texas, Colorado, California and Arizona – in addition to 11 regions in England. More than 15% of its 300 employees currently work in the US
“Since our soft launch in Minneapolis, we are now the second largest provider in the state,” Kremerman said. “We operate in five states and work with nine of the 200 largest school districts in the U.S.”
Kremerman also said the technology-driven approach helped it adapt to a different regulatory environment in the U.S
“Licensing varies by state, whereas in England and Wales there are standardized national standards,” Kremerman said. “We are able to leverage our authentication technology to quickly adapt and deploy across states while most traditional staffing firms struggle to do so.”
With one other $37 million in the bank, the company said it plans to expand into more markets in the U.S. and the U.K. and introduce recent software for school administrators that features adding to its school staff management software that features tools for authentication, compliance and absence management.
Additionally, Zen Educate is also expanding its resources through acquisitions, today announcing its second-ever acquisition of a teacher staffing agency Aquinas’s education. The company said it intends to complete several more acquisitions in each the US and the UK
Notably, Aquinas Education includes a former skilled footballer turned TV presenter Jermaine Yen as one of its owners, and following this acquisition, Jenas now joins Zen Educate as a brand ambassador.
Zen Educate’s Series B round was led by Round2 Capital, with participation from Adjuvo, Brighteye Ventures, FJ Labs, Ascension Ventures and several angels.