Paper (company)

In August 2016, the company announced that it raised $1.6 million from venture capitalists in August 2016. The financing was led by Birchmere Ventures, with participation from BDC Capital.[1] Over the following years, their product offering evolved beyond tutoring to include a comprehensive suite of tools to support both students and teachers.

The company officially announced a rebrand from GradeSlam to Paper in March 2020. At the same time they announced a $7.5 million dollar financing that was backed by investors including Reach Capital, Bullpen Capital, Birchmere Ventures, Google and others. [2] Paper is credited with the creation of the Educational Support System category.[3]

The conversational nature of Paper's platform is designed for ease of use to ensure the widest net of accessibility for students. Google's AI Assistant fund led an investment into the company. [4]

Less than one year after completing its Series A financing, Paper announced it had closed an $11 million dollar Series B led by Toronto based venture capital fund Framework Venture Partners. At the time of the financing, Paper reported having 50 public school customers and 75 employees.

The round, announced in December 2020, followed a year of rapid growth for Paper and the broader education technology industry.

In June 2021, Paper announced a $100 million dollar financing led by venture capital fund IVP. At the time, the financing was one of the largest ever for a Canadian education company. [5]

The company announced a Series D financing of $270 million dollars in February 2022. The financing was co-led by Softbank, and Sapphire Ventures. It also included earlier investors IVP, Salesforce Ventures, Framework Venture Partners, Bullpen Capital, Reach Capital, BDC Capital, and Red House Education.[6] At the time, the company disclosed that it was supporting "close to 2 million students".[7] The financing became the company's 3rd publicly announced funding in a span of 13 months.

Paper provides a comprehensive Educational Support System (ESS). The ESS consists of a number of student, teacher and administrator tools. They are best known for the online academic support that provides 24/7 live help and essay review. For students, Paper provides schools with the ability to offer students with chat-based access to tutors. Tutors working for Paper are regarded as an extension of each school’s individual teaching staff. Teachers are granted access to see their students' interactions on Paper. Teachers also receive insights to help inform their teaching and have a pulse on their class' assessments.[8]

In response to requests for writing specific feedback, Paper launched a service called Essay Review. Essay review allows any written work to be annotated and reviewed by a writing specific tutor who helps the student advance their written skills.

Initially intended for language arts classes, Essay Review began being used by students in all classes, as well as for resumes and other personal writing pieces. In 2020, Paper introduced the “plagiar-eyes” badge. The badge appears on reviewed essays. It lets students and teachers know that there is work required to remove any instances of plagiarism. [9]

In March 2020, Paper launched an education industry focused blog. The Paper blog includes educator spotlights, industry interviews, and series about coping with school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10]

The company has released a series of White Papers and guides for the education and edtech industry. These documents highlight research and analysis across a spectrum of issues and ideas in education.[11]