Labster secures $47M to expand global opportunities for virtual science laboratory simulations

APR 04, 2022

BY BALDERTON

This new financing comes from Sofina Group and Pirate Impact, along with existing investors: Owl Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, EduCapital, NPF Technologies, and GGV Capital.

Labster is the world's leading platform for virtual labs and interactive science. Balderton led Labster's Series A in 2017. The new capital infusion will enable the company to further develop in Europe and the United States and to establish itself within Asia and Latin America. 

By investing more funds into its library of science simulations and expanding its reach to younger students and adult workforce skills training, Labster will be able to serve 100 million students around the world through its institutional and government partnerships.

Labster's mission is to provide all students, regardless of socioeconomic status or geographic location, with equitable access to high-quality engaging science education and virtual laboratories – an ongoing critical need accelerated by the pandemic and now rapidly growing globally as digitalization of the education sector with hybrid and remote learning continues.

Michael Bodekaer Jensen, co-founder and CEO of Labster

Labster's founders – Michael Bodekaer Jensen & Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde

This additional funding will help us to continue growing our support for a broader group of students, teachers, and educational institutions around the world to make our mission a reality. There has been a fundamental change in the nature of education over the last two years that confirms the high value and impact on student engagement and learning outcomes of virtual educational simulations offered in tandem with in-person, teacher-led coursework in a post-pandemic world.

Michael Bodekaer Jensen, co-founder and CEO of Labster

Named by Global Silicon Valley’s (GSV) EdTech 150 as one of the most transformative private companies in education, Labster's team of 350-plus employees supports over 3,000 universities and high schools, tens of thousands of courses, and millions of students every year. Throughout 70-plus countries, Labster is delivered on a state-of-the-art digital platform that provides seamless access, implementation, and integration with other systems for users.

The new funding will contribute to Labster’s ambitious roadmap for expansion. In addition to expanding into new geographic regions, Labster is now hiring across all major teams including engineering, product, sales, and customer success. This next stage of expansion will provide educators and students with virtual lab simulations for hybrid, remote, and in-person learning modalities worldwide.

One of Labster's virtual lab simulations

We are tackling a global learning crisis where current access to engaging and impactful education is not meeting demands or servicing students well enough. Science education is traditionally so ineffective that 60% of STEM students drop out. Labster is the only offering in the market that provides a highly interactive life-like laboratory experience that is documented to reduce failure rates and improve outcomes for students. We are proud to produce high-quality, affordable science education that helps teachers and students to empower the next generation of scientists.

Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde, Labster cofounder and executive chairman

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