On Wednesday, Bethesda, M.D.-based Tales2Go announced it had secured a $2.4 million Series A equity funding round led by a group of private investors with participation from NewSchools Venture Fund and the Maryland Venture Fund. Known for its children's audio books streaming service, Tales2Go also announced the addition of Richard Barth, CEO of the KIPP Foundation, to its board of directors.
Tales2Go supports the development of young student’s literacy skills during early childhood and elementary school.
"Richard shares our belief that every student can achieve academic success. Richard has been committed to improving educational outcomes for underserved youth since college, initially as a founding staff member of Teach for America, then President of District Partnerships at Edison Schools … where he has overseen significant growth in their network from 45 to 162 schools,” said Tales2Go Co-Founder and CEO, William Weil.
Through a mobile application and desktop platform children can access a wide variety of updated audiobook offerings. Tales2Go believes that exposure to sophisticated vocabulary, when spoken fluently and in a proper context, can drive language acquisition and better lesson retention. Its service are used in multiple districts throughout the U.S., including: Los Angeles Unified School District (California), Broward County Schools (Florida), Berkeley Unified School District (California) and Heartland Area Education Agency (Iowa).
Excited to share that we completed a Series A financing and elected Richard Barth (CEO of KIPP) to our board!
Posted by Tales2Go on Wednesday, March 25, 2015
The influx of cash via the funding round will be used to further expanded services and the company within the U.S. and Canada. Subsequent plans to build an international presence were also mentioned in a press release.The company sells three-month ($29.99) or annual ($99.99) individual subscription packages to its customers. A member can add up to five devices (i.e. desktop, laptop and/or iDevice) to their account.
