Zen Educate raises $37 million, acquires Aquinas Education in attempt to address teacher shortage

Zen Educate, an online marketplace that connects schools with teachers, has raised $37 million in a Series B funding round.

This increase comes amid growing teacher shortages on both sides of the Atlantic, with a recent report from the ADP Research Institute noting that the global pandemic has exacerbated the existing supply/demand imbalance due to “the stagnation of wages and a stressful work environment.

Founded in London in 2017, Zen Educate replaces traditional third-party recruitment agencies that often use analog workflows and charge exorbitant fees. Zen Educate digitizes everything through a self-service platform, removing costly middlemen from the equation. Through the platform, teachers and schools create profiles and Zen Educate can automatically match the two entities based on their compatibility – this uses data such as proximity, skills, experience, among other preferences.

Schools can use Zen Educate to hire for full-time positions, but teachers can also use it to more easily find temporary or part-time positions that fit their lives.

“As in all fields, educators are seeking greater flexibility in their work and therefore there is a greater need for flexible working solutions in education like Zen Educate,” said Slava Kremerman, co-founder and CEO of Zen Educate at TechCrunch.

In addition to this, Zen Educate also promises higher salaries, given that the cut is less than that of legacy agencies.

“The average membership rate for the incumbent industry is between 35 and 38 percent,” Kremerman said. “We are a little more than halfway there. As a result, teachers earn more and schools save money.

Expansion

Zen Educate raised a $21 million Series A round in late 2022 as it looked to expand into the US market following a soft launch in Minneapolis. Today, the company operates in four additional states: Texas, Colorado, California and Arizona, in addition to 11 regions in England. And more than 15% of its 300 employees are now based in the United States.

“Since the soft launch in Minneapolis, we are now the second largest provider in the state,” Kremerman said. “We operate in five states and work with nine of the 200 largest school districts in the United States”

Kremerman also said its technology-based approach has helped it adapt to the different regulatory environments in the United States.

“Licensing is up to each state, whereas England and Wales have a standardized national standard,” Kremerman said. “We are able to use our credentialing technology to quickly scale and deploy across states, whereas most traditional staffing companies struggle to do this. »

With an additional $37 million in the bank, the company announced plans to expand into more markets in the US and UK and launch new software for school administrators, which includes adding to its school personnel management software which contains accreditation, compliance and absence management tools.

Additionally, Zen Educate is also strengthening its resources through acquisitions, today announcing its second acquisition with the purchase of teacher recruitment agency Aquinas Education. The company announced plans to make several more acquisitions in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Notably, Aquinas Education counts former professional footballer turned television presenter Jermaine Jenas among its owners, and following this acquisition, Jenas now joins Zen Educate as a brand ambassador.

Zen Educate’s Series B round was led by Round2 Capital, with participation from Adjuvo, Brighteye Ventures, FJ Labs, Ascension Ventures, and several angel investors.