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With one semester of online teaching under its belt, Apex Learning Inc. has landed $20 million from investors to fuel its rapid growth.
The Paul Allen-backed startup offers advanced placement courses over the Internet to high school students who otherwise wouldn't have access to the rigorous, college-level courses.
The funding, the Bellevue company's second outside round, will allow chief executive Sally Narodick to double the Apex's online course offerings, broaden its products to include teacher training, and launch its first marketing efforts.
"We're going to dramatically expand our product development," said Narodick, who formerly was chief executive of educational software maker Edmark Corp. "We're also going to greatly increase the resources spent on marketing and sales."
The latest funding, which brings Apex's total to more than $30 million, also establishes the company as a stand-alone entity able to attract investors other than its founder, billionaire Paul Allen. Allen founded Apex two years ago after growing frustrated with the slow pace of technology innovation in education. The company decided to target advanced placement classes, which more than half of the nation's 25,000 school districts don't offer.
After a pilot test more than a year ago, Apex launched its first online semester last September. About 300 students signed up to take its five AP courses. Another 18,000 logged onto the company's CramCentral Web site last March to prepare for the annual advanced placement exams.
Steve Distler, managing director at Warburg Pincus in New York City and lead investor in the $20 million round, believes he's getting in on the ground floor of a huge...