Capital Chaos

 GlobalScholar (Bellevue, WA) pulled in a hefty Series B of $27M led by previous investors Ignition Partners and Knowledge Universe Education.  This brings the total raise to date at $42.5M which is a hefty amount for a site that is a WebEx for tutors. 

The company offers a valuable tool to both parents and students who are seeking pre-qualified tutors that can help in a myriad of topics from English, Math, SAT Prep and also has services broken down by grades which is pretty cool as well.  Tutors are able to charge their own rates which range from $5-$95 p/hour and GlobalScholar takes 20%. 

As part of the investment announcement, GlobalScholar also announced that it has acquired Excelsior Software which makes student assessment software used by teachers in 1,000 school districts nationwide.

While the field of online tutoring is pretty crowded with the likes of Kaplan, Tutor.com, SmartThinking etc., GlobalScholar does have some great technology and seemingly an abundance of cash to push on.

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 Ignition Partners (Bellevue, WA) is an early stage investor that will only accept pitches from an introduction (lame).  These guys are primarily ex-Microsoft execs and have a reputation for being a bit brash and don’t necessarily have a high regard from others in the VC world because of their style (and maybe because of their success).  While they have a single goal: to be the best VC to invest in and work with in North America - they are not often referred to in that category.  The primary sectors they focus on are Communications, IT, Infrastructure and Consumer. 

If you do get an intro to these guys, make sure the following info is in your business plan (which should only be 10-12 pages long):

The main standout in the organization that you should try and pitch (if you get an intro) is Steve Hooper telecommunications and wireless).  Steve has a very good reputation and is well respected in the wireless/telco space.