Local edtech startup Flashnotes announced on Monday that it has raised $3.6 million in Series A, led by Stage 1 Ventures, with Runa Capital, Soft Bank Capital and Atlas Venture also participating in the round.
The company's cardinal platform allows college students to buy and sell course-specific study materials, such as notes, flashcards and study guides, to empower students to make their own money while providing resources to other students who may need an extra push. Students selling their study materials and services on Flashnotes set their own price, spread the word to their classmates to pocket 70 percent of each transaction, which is paid out on a weekly basis.
In the last year alone, the platform saw a 175 percent growth in users. With the help of Monday's round, Flashnotes hopes to take that number even higher in the coming semester. The company will use the newfound capital to fuel its expansion in the higher education marketplace and accelerate the adoption of its peer-learning platform on college campuses around the country, according to the release.
The raise keeps up the company's momentum following the launch of its live video tutorial offering in November 2013 – a transition that Co-founder and CEO Mike Matousek told BostInno catalyzed the crowdsourced marketplace "from a cool story to a real company."
Just last July, the peer-to-peer startup raised $1.5 million in a seed round extension and announced that it had acquired NoteUtopia, a Californian online community for purchasing and selling class notes, to bolster its West Coast presence.
Since its founding in 2009, Flashnotes has raised $5.1 million.
