Flashnotes Funded to Scale Marketplace for Peer-to-Peer Learning

Acquires NoteUtopia; bolsters management team

BOSTON--()--Flashnotes, the online student-to-student marketplace for buying and selling class study material, has closed a seed round extension of $1.5M. The financing was provided by new investor Nicole Stata of Boston Seed Capital, return investors Ryan Moore of Atlas Venture, Jordan Levy of Softbank Capital, and angels Deborah Quazzo, Jere Doyle and Bob Mason.

“Flashnotes has built, and is quickly expanding, a marketplace that delivers high-quality and high-value material. Importantly, they are trusted by both buyers and sellers,” said Nicole Stata, founder and managing director of Boston Seed Capital. “We are impressed with the team and their approach to this market opportunity.”

In parallel with the funding, Flashnotes has acquired NoteUtopia, a California-based online community for buying and selling class notes. The merger brings Flashnotes additional Universities, class-specific content and student members. The integration of the two companies will be complete for the Fall 2013 semester.

“The inroads that NoteUtopia has made on the west coast make a perfect match with the success already achieved by Flashnotes on the east coast, and I am confident that our students will transition seamlessly and love sharing notes on the Flashnotes platform,” said Ryan Stevens, founder of NoteUtopia. “The Flashnotes team has done an amazing job building the platform thus far and I am looking forward to working together to dominate this market.”

Earlier this year, Flashnotes named Jeff Kushmerek as Chief Product Officer, and recently hired Kate Adams as VP of Marketing. Before joining Flashnotes, Jeff ran created and ran the professional services group for online video leader Brightcove; Kate was product director at Edvisors, a network of higher education resource sites.

“We are thrilled to have Jeff and Kate on the team,” said Mike Matousek, founder and CEO of Flashnotes. “Jeff’s experience and expertise in technology, video and business, and Kate’s experience building strong student communities, are invaluable to Flashnotes as we continue to grow the community and expand our offerings.”

Flashnotes debuted its first video tutorial offering in the Spring 2013 semester (click here to see video) and will launch more comprehensive real-time video offerings in Fall 2013.

About Flashnotes
Flashnotes enables students to help each other study. It is a marketplace for class-specific study material – notes, flashcards and tutorial videos. Students set their own price for the content they create and upload; and they earn up to 70% on each sale. The crowd-sourced rating system weeds out poor content very quickly and incentivizes the best note takers. Flashnotes also offers a 100% money back guarantee. Visit www.flashnotes.com.

Contacts

For Flashnotes
Matt Burke, 603-315-0618
mburke@atlasventure.com

Release Summary

Flashnotes raises funding and makes acquisition to grow marketplace for peer-to-peer learning

Contacts

For Flashnotes
Matt Burke, 603-315-0618
mburke@atlasventure.com