Brightwheel Raises $21M in Series B

Brightwheel, the leading provider of management and communication software for early education, announced today it has raised $21 million in new financing. Bessemer Venture Partners led the Series B round with participation from Omidyar Network and existing investors Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Eniac Ventures, GGV Capital, Golden Venture Partners, and Lowercase Capital.

Brightwheel is the leading all-in-one platform for preschools, childcare providers, camps, and afterschool programs. It combines all the required systems to run a school and business into a fast and easy-to-use solution that saves both time and money while improving the educational experience for young students.

"We're proud that brightwheel has become the most trusted platform in early education," said Dave Vasen, founder & CEO of brightwheel. "We hear amazing stories every day from parents, teachers, and small business owners about how brightwheel makes their day better. Bessemer is the perfect partner to quickly grow our team and to reach even more schools and families."

Parents spend more than $50 billion annually on pre-K education, and there are more than 800,000 operators in the U.S. alone. Yet the industry has traditionally lacked innovation and mobile solutions.

"Brightwheel has become the gold standard in the early education industry – serving hundreds of thousands of teachers and parents every day," said Charles Birnbaum, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. "Brightwheel saves time for teachers and connects parents to their child's development in a way that was not possible before. We could not be more excited to join Dave and the fantastic brightwheel team on their journey to improve the quality of care for early childhood centers around the world."

The brightwheel platform has a measurable impact on both schools and families.

Classroom Time Saver
With a few taps, teachers can easily track attendance, conduct learning observations, share videos, and gain insights into early childhood development. This saves educators up to one hour per day, giving them more time with students.

Parent Engagement
Brightwheel provides mobile messaging and real-time updates throughout the day. Parents are better able to engage in their child's development and continue the learning at home.

Robust Business Solution
The brightwheel platform helps manage enrollment, staffing, licensing compliance, and tuition collection – all in one place. To date, brightwheel has delivered over $300 million in tuition to small business owners across America.

The new round of financing will be used to accelerate product development and expand the team. Brightwheel is already the most powerful cloud-based system in early education and has seen unprecedented growth amongst preschools, childcare providers, and camps. This funding will enable the development of new features and expansion of the team across brightwheel's San Francisco and Denver offices.

To learn more, visit http://www.mybrightwheel.com.

About brightwheel
Brightwheel is the first all-in-one software platform for preschools, childcare providers, camps, and afterschool programs. Brightwheel helps teachers manage their day and communicate with parents, gives parents deeper insight into what their children are learning, and automates the process of managing operations for administrators. The platform has been shown to save teachers and administrators up to an hour per day while improving parent satisfaction and giving them a closer connection to their child's learning. It is the fastest growing platform in early education, used across thousands of locations globally. Learn more at http://www.mybrightwheel.com.

About Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is a $5B global venture capital firm that invests in consumer, enterprise and healthcare startups from seven offices around the world. One of the longest-standing venture capital firms in the world, BVP invested in the early stages of Pinterest, Twitch, Blue Apron and Skype and has helped 122 of its companies go public, including SendGrid, Twilio, MindBody, Shopify, Wix, Yelp and LinkedIn. Follow us @BessemerVP.