ICL and Royal College of Art-founded edtech developer Sam Labs has now raised $19.8m in all to sustain the growth of its coding education kit business.
Sam Labs, a UK-based edtech developer spun out of Imperial College London and Royal College of Art, has secured $8.9m in a series A2 round backed by Hans Wackwitz for Partners in Equity and Olivier de Duve for Inventures Investment Partners.
The series A2 round has been accumulating capital since earlier in 2019, however details of the amount raised have only just been announced.
Founded in 2014, Sam Labs has introduced an educational kit focused on construction and computer programming, with an emphasis on skills such as coding, debugging and sequencing.
The kits contain wireless electronics for the classroom, as well as teacher training software and gamified apps that encourage children to experience each lesson.
Sam Labs markets a coding kit for students in grades four-to-eight, while encouraging younger children with a more-gradual approach oriented around applying similar skills in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.
The cash will help Sam Labs scale its presence and sales capacity in the US, as it looks to extend its international foothold and launch more edtech products in both the UK and US.
Sam Labs has now raised $19.8m of funding altogether, including $6.8m received through a November 2017 series A close co-led by E15 Ventures and commercialisation firm Touchstone Innovations, the latter of which is now part of IP Group.
The spinout also received $4.6m in a 2016 round led by a $2.9m commitment from Imperial Innovations, the tech transfer office for ICL then under Touchstone’s remit but since returned to the university’s control.
Sam Labs had already obtained more than $196,000 of crowdfunding two years previously, and is a graduate of semiconductor manufacturer Intel’s Education Accelerator.
