Dive Brief:
- Mark Zuckerberg has invested $100 million to AltSchool, a network of brick and mortar schools aiming to revolutionize the way elementary and middle schools are run.
- Currently, there are 12 AltSchools (known as microschools) in the Bay Area, but the new investment has the company eyeing new locations in PaloAlto, San Francisco, and Brooklyn for fall.
- Led by former Google executive and Aardvark founder Max Ventilla, the startup aims to provide child-centered education rooted in technology.
Dive Insight:
AltSchool's model has the start up lease school building space, where it operates its "microschools" with its own proprietary software. Wired recently published a feature detailing a typical day in one of the schools.
The investment from Zuckerberg is a major development for the startup, which in March 2013 raised $33 million in venture capital by comparison. As we reported then, investor Brian Singerman explained that profitability is not the focus in the early stages, but rather creating systems that “strip out costs that don’t relate to better classroom experiences” and zeroing in on how technology can enrich classrooms.
According to Wired, AltSchools cost $20,875 — a slight increase from the $19,000 (and some change) reported last year.
