Labster Secures $21MM In Series B To Massively Expand Virtual Lab Catalog And Scale U.S. Operations

BOSTON, April 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Labster, the award-winning producer of virtual laboratory simulations, today announced it has raised $21 million in its Series B funding round led by Owl Ventures. Balderton Capital, Northzone and Swisscom Ventures also participated in the round, while Nordic Makers, David Helgason, EduCapital and Entangled Group made follow-on investments.

Labster provides fully interactive virtual laboratory simulations for students from all over the world to explore lab experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and general sciences at their own pace. With over 70 virtual labs offered, Labster's groundbreaking simulations engage students, and have been proven to increase participation in STEM curricula, while simultaneously increasing learning outcomes and improving retention rates.

This latest round will accelerate the expansion of Labster's STEM content catalog and development of new lab simulations, giving students and educators alike even more access to realistic lab experiences. The funding will also enable the company to continue to scale its U.S. operations, including customer support and sales.

"Labster is making STEM education more easily accessible and engaging for students around the globe by providing unique, interactive experiences in laboratory environments that are typically inaccessible to most people. This funding will enable us to develop new simulations and content from a wide range of STEM fields, creating more opportunities for students to learn, experiment and explore," said Michael Bodekaer, Labster co-founder. "Sixty-six years ago today, two scientists changed the world when they published their discovery of DNA's double helix structure. It's our goal to empower the next generation of scientists to make more revolutionary discoveries like these."

More than 150 universities and high schools around the world took up Labster's virtual labs in 2018, quadrupling their annual growth and enabling more than 200,000 students worldwide to use virtual labs as a part of their science education. Labster has also developed partnerships with industry leaders in technology and education like Google and Arizona State University, Lenovo, Pearson and Springer.

"Labster is a breakthrough company that is transforming how students from around the world access virtual labs and STEM curricula. Their initial offering is unrivaled in terms of product quality and student experience. The pace of adoption combined with the acceleration in student achievement is simply amazing. We are thrilled to partner with Labster as they scale their leading global platform," said Tory Patterson, Managing Director at Owl Ventures.

"Mads, Michael and the Labster team continue to improve access to STEM education and redefine what is possible for both students and educators," said Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, general partner, Balderton Capital. "We're proud to support Labster as it expands throughout the U.S., making its virtual labs and simulations available to more students and inspiring a new generation to pursue STEM-related fields."

To learn more about Labster and try a full lab experience, please visit: www.labster.com

About Labster
Labster is a company dedicated to developing fully interactive advanced laboratory simulations that are designed to stimulate students' natural curiosity and highlight the connection between science and the real world. Labster works with leading educational institutions around the world to improve science learning, resulting in collaborations with over 150 institutions in 25 countries, including ETH in Zurich, MIT and Imperial College. Labster has also partnered with major publishers and edtech companies, and just recently announced the launch of the world's first fully online biology degree with Labster VR in partnership with Google and ASU. www.labster.com

About Owl Ventures
Owl Ventures is a Silicon Valley based venture capital fund that invests in the world's leading education technology companies.  The firm has invested in 27 companies across the education spectrum encompassing early childhood, K-12, higher education and career mobility/professional learning.  Owl leverages its deep domain expertise and takes an active hands-on approach to help entrepreneurs scale their businesses into transformative category leading companies.  The firm was founded in 2014 and has over $600 million in assets under management.  Learn more at www.OwlVC.com

About Balderton Capital
Balderton Capital is Europe's largest early-stage venture capital investor, focused on European technology companies at Series A. Based in London, the firm manages $2.7bn and invests in entrepreneurs building globally ambitious businesses. Balderton's Partners include the founders and operational leaders of multi-billion dollar companies including Business Objects, Dropbox, Uber and Autonomy; Previous investments include Betfair, Magic Pony (Twitter), NaturalMotion (Zynga), Sunrise (Microsoft), Talend and Yoox Net-a-Porter. Among Balderton's current portfolio of 85 companies are: Aircall, Carwow, Citymapper, Contentful, Frontier Car Group, GoCardless, The Hut Group, Kobalt Music, Nutmeg, Prodigy Finance, Recorded Future, Revolut, ROLI, SOPHiA Genetics, Vestiaire Collective, and Vivino.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Labster

Related Links

https://www.labster.com

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