These are among the 15 ed-tech startup ideas selected in Amazon Web Services’ first-ever Education Accelerator global competition, company officials announced Tuesday. Each will receive up to $100,000 in AWS computing credits, training, networking opportunities and market visibility in the pre-K-12, higher education and workforce education spaces.
AWS received thousands of applications. The selected recipients demonstrated their potential to address school challenges and develop the next generation of ed-tech solutions.
“As education continues to evolve, data-driven decision making is a powerful strategy to transform teaching and learning practices and unlock new opportunities for student success,” reads the AWS announcement. “For startups, this represents an opportunity to change the trajectory of education through the thoughtful and equitable use of data, analytics and artificial intelligence to power solutions and solve some of education’s greatest challenges.”
The 10-week program begins this week in Seattle, at Amazon’s corporate office. It culminates with a virtual Emerging Technology Showcase led by OMNIA Partners. The program aims to help the recipients raise money, expand their partner networks and close deals with new customers “to fast-track their ed tech startup,” the news release said.
OMNIA Partners, a group purchasing organization/government procurement agency based in Franklin, Tenn., has been in business for 22 years and serves the education (K-12 and higher education), government, private equity, corporate, real estate and nonprofit industries, according to the company website.
Here's a brief look at the cohort:
- Augmental Learning Inc. (Sussex County, Del.): An AI-powered learning platform that allows educators to create personalized learning content
- Blackbullion (London, U.K.): A platform and app that helps students develop financial skills and easily access information on scholarships and grants
- enlightenAI (San Francisco): An AI-powered teacher’s assistant that helps with grading and student feedback
- Hilight (New Orleans): A tool that encourages teachers and staff to post highlights “and share the many small wins” of their day and enhance job satisfaction, well-being and employee retention
- Infini-D Learning (Provo, Utah): A platform that combines story-driven narratives with collaborative problem-solving challenges
- Lessonbee (Mount Vernon, N.Y.): A tool for facilitating health and wellness equity for students
- Listening (San Francisco): The mobile app for students converts papers and textbooks into audio for the purpose of streamlining the research process
- Oblio Inc. (Murrieta, Calif.): This AI tool helps college and university admissions personnel send personalized emails and streamline communications in multiple languages
- OneRange (New York City): A data tool for managing budgets and identifying resources for individualized learning
- Perlego (London, U.K.): An online subscription service for more than 1 million academic textbooks
- Praxis AI (Sacramento, Calif.): The generative AI tool combines student-teacher interactions with personalized tutoring
- Quizard AI Inc. (Dover, Del.): A multilingual app used to study for tests and quizzes
- SchoolBI (San Francisco): A data tool used for reporting results across different departments
- Sown To Grow (Oakland, Calif.): A social, emotional and academic well-being platform used for student feedback
- The Juice (Miami): An interactive platform used for reading comprehension, critical thinking and media literacy instruction
