Games and Learning

Clever has had a very good 2014.

This year eight out of the top 10 school districts signed on to the technology integration service, bringing the total number of Clever schools to some 30,000.

Clever has successfully turned a logistical glitch into a fast-growing business.

The edtech firm started only two and a half years ago and this week closed another round of funding after raking in another $30 million in capital from groups like Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV Capital, Peter Thiel and Sequoia Capital.

But it’s more than just cash that is flowing towards Clever, it’s a boatload of firms looking to get their technology and games into classrooms. Last week, the MMS student information platform inked a deal with Clever to assist with their integration into schools, with their vice president saying, “Clever has become the recognized leader in eliminating data entry so that schools can use online learning products easily and effectively.”

Last month Carnegie Learning signed on as did GlassLab, the learning game design operation and assessment gurus.

In talking with gamesandlearning,org about the deal Matt Frenz, partnership manager at GlassLab said, “This partnership is about providing educators with the easiest possible way of integrating SimCityEDU into their classroom. We expect that this opportunity will help give us an even better understanding of what our customers need. If that results in sales a year from now, then that will be fantastic. But this is more of a learning experience than anything.”

So what is it about Clever that makes it such a potential game-changer in the edtech space? Well, it may be a bit of a missing link between the classroom and Silicon Valley.

When technology firms enter the education space they are often shocked by the realities of the classroom. When Rick Borovoy was discussing Google Play’s move into education he stressed, “If it becomes slightly cumbersome in a school, it becomes impossible. At Google we’ll all futz with our technology for a few minutes in a meeting to get something to work… We’ll take five minutes to make something work. We all live with it. Teachers won’t live with it.”

And it may be this reality that Clever has turned into a business.

Clever essentially allows teachers to easily integrate different technologies into the classroom by creating simple single sign-on systems that monitor information and passwords for whole classes of kids. It’s middle ware at its most obvious and it is seen by those backing it as a major breakthrough.

One of the recent funders – Lightspeed Venture Partners – usually backs projects earlier in their development, but founding partner (and now Clever board member) Ravi Mhatre told TechCrunch, “It was the vision combined with the traction that they’re seeing… which convinced us this is a company that has a real opportunity to change how the online education system works.”

It may seem silly that a system that helps with logging in to programs would be seen as this big a deal, but the reality Google talked about can’t be overlooked.

A recent survey of teachers conducted by MDR (with support from Clever) found that 25.4% of computer lab time is lost simply troubleshooting student accounts and logins.

Clever’s rapid growth speaks to the specific challenges faced in deploying technologies in the classroom setting and how developers wanting teachers to use games may need to consider issues like password and account management when planning their product launches.

That, or look for partners like Clever to ease the transition from the consumer market where one or two kids may access an app on a parent’s iPad to the school setting where dozens of students on devices or desktops must be logged in separately and tracked.

For Clever, it’s a problem that has helped them explode in a market rarely known for swift technology adoption. With a new wave of funding, partners and districts in tow, Clever is now making the case it will be the long-term solution for schools.

“With this new funding, schools can count on Clever being around forever, as a trusted partner that understands their technology needs and always puts student learning first,” Clever CEO Tyler Bosmeny said.