Online educational video hub Mobento has secured £1.1 million (around $1.7m) in seed funding, closing off one of Tech City’s largest rounds of initial stage funding, the company said.
The learning portal only first set up shop last year but plans to use the cash injection to grow the business by bringing “educational technology up to speed with the advances made elsewhere in business, social networks and mobile”.
“Video is an incredibly powerful tool in education. It slots right into the behaviour and customs of contemporary students and it is a democratising and liberating force within education because it enables the world’s best educators to reach out to students all over the world,” Sumner Murphy, founder of Mobento said.
Mobento, founded by native New Yorker Murphy who has now relocated to London, announced the million pound deal on Tuesday. He said he chose London as the home for the company as a result of the “lively technology start up environment and the City’s access to global markets”.
“Mobento’s decision to base themselves here is further proof that Tech City is the ideal location to scale and grow a successful digital business. Quick access to Europe and our heritage of creativity and innovation make London attractive for digital media and tech companies. Whilst the blend of creativity and innovation that exists in East London with easy access to the financial centre of the City is also a major advantage,” Benjamin Southworth, deputy CEO of Tech City, said.
The new backers behind the cash are made up of “classic angel investors – a small consortium of businessmen and high net worth individuals,” Mobento said without offering specifics.
Mobento’s offering consists of a curated set of videos on a wide range of topics combined with the various technical features of its platform, such as being able to search an entire archive of video content for specific words. So, searching for ‘Enzymes’ will yield results from sets of lectures from Yale, TED, Khan Academy and Bozman Science in which speakers use the word.
More than that, users can then jump directly to that point in the video, saving time and effort in watching the whole thing or scanning through it to try and find the correct part – assuming you knew when they said the word already, of course.
Image Credit – Getty Images
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