Tampa's edtech startup Knack has raised a seven-figure round with the likes of Bellini Capital and Miami Angels.
The fund, which was oversubscribed and entirely within its existing investor network, also received participation from the Lynn Family Office, which created Boca Raton-based Lynn University. Jon Chapman, a co-founder in Washington, D.C.-based EverFi, and Alex Lavoie, head of global operations at New York-based Via, also participated in the round. Lavoie will serve as an adviser to Knack, along with Florida's former chief financial officer Jeff Atwater.
The exact amount was not disclosed.
"We're super excited about [Lavoie] because Via has a very similar business model being B2B to B2C, providing free transportation to cities similar to how we sell to universities so tutoring can be free," Knack CEO Samyr Qureshi said. The Tampa Bay region also welcomed another Via executive to its startup ecosystem this week: Ramit Singh, who served as the director of operations for Via. He will now be the Tampa Bay Wave's director of startup and entrepreneurship programs.
Knack already had a long line of powerhouse investors: Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and California-based Precursor Venture's Charles Hudson helped the startup raise $1.5 million in 2018. The company's relationship with Tampa-based ConnectWise, co-founded by Arnie Bellini, has morphed into a relationship with the newly launched Bellini Capital. But the latest funding, Qureshi said, puts the company on solid footing for 2021.
"We're in due diligence with a couple other funds that are interested in joining in on this round but we're not actively fundraising," Qureshi said. "The plan is to continue to aggressively grow our footprint. We've now partnered with over two dozen institutions when, at the start of the year, we were under five. It's really to continue to drive sales and marketing."
Knack has also recently closed on a multiyear, six-figure deal with an unnamed Texas-based nonprofit that will license Knack's technology for K-12 purposes.
"Our technology obviously has use cases beyond the realm of college tutoring," Qureshi said. "And during a time the market is needing individualized learning solutions, we wanted to think outside the box to provide technology to other organizations while capturing revenue and impact as we continue to scale."
Peerfit, a Tampa-based wellness tech company, also announced this week it had entered into a licensing deal with an unnamed partner.
"It allows us to grow our mission and the choice to open up to other markets had always been in the plans — Covid-19 just accelerated the need for it," Qureshi said. "And we figured we had the technology, why not run this as an experiment, and it's now working very well."
He stated this would be the "first of many" types of licensing technology deals. That plus the fresh capital have allowed Knack to reach 17 full-time employees with the goal of 20 by the end of the year. There are also plans to expand to more college campuses at the beginning of next year. Knack is currently utilized in universities including Johns Hopkins, University of South Florida, Florida A&M and partnered with Florida Power and Light.
"We're focused on higher education and as the market reaches out to us to see if technology services may be flexible, we're responding within reason," he said. "For us, it's always central, 'Does this fit within our long-term mission' and 'Does this make sense from a business standpoint?' And it's not just revenue but, 'Will we be able to help those and employ more tutors?' As long as those line up, we can explore them."
