Winner Announced at 5th annual SXSWedu Conference & Festival
The SXSWedu Conference & Festival announced video learning platform Zaption as the winner of the fourth annual LAUNCHedu startup competition.
After two days of pitching and judging, the announcement was made at the LAUNCHedu celebration, hosted by the Walton Family Foundation, in Austin, Texas.
Zaption features video-based learning with interactive content and tools that engage learners, deepen understanding and track progress. Teachers and trainers use Zaption to quickly add images, text and questions to existing online videos. With Zaption’s Analytics, instructors can get immediate feedback on how students interact with content and understand key concepts.
Next page: More about the startup competition
The LAUNCHedu startup competition, powered by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focuses on early-stage startups in the education space, serving as an unparalleled platform to showcase and exhibit new products and services. The program focuses SXSWedu’s celebration of innovation onto educational technology, bringing together educators and entrepreneurs.
“We’ve really enjoyed celebrating and exploring the new ideas presented at LAUNCHedu this year,” said Ron Reed, SXSWedu Executive Producer. “This year’s finalists are paving the way for innovation in education and we’re really proud to highlight their work and share it with the SXSWedu community.”
This year’s competition included ten finalists selected by the LAUNCHedu Advisory Board from more than 100 applications and represented a wide range of educational tools from around the world. Ideas spanned across K12 and higher education, with products and services geared toward both students and educators. After the competition lightning stage, Ideas Box, Pear Deck and Zaption were selected to compete in the showdown round. For a full list of 2015 LAUNCHedu finalists please visit: http://sxswedu.com/launchedu/finalists.
“All ten of this year’s finalists were first rate,” said LAUNCHedu judge Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation at The University of Texas at Austin. “Zaption edged the others out with a great startup very well presented. I especially admired their traction and process for learning from customer engagements.”
The LAUNCHedu judging panels were comprised of leading educators, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who lent their insight and expertise to the competing companies. This year’s judges were Bob Metcalfe (The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business), Dan Carroll (Clever), Jack Lynch (Renaissance Learning), Ulrik Juul Christensen (McGraw-Hill Education), Jennie Magiera (Academy for Urban School Leadership) and Stacey Childress (New Schools Venture Fund). The 2015 LAUNCHedu competition was emceed by Mike Kleba (North Shore Schools) and Mandela Schumacher-Hodge (UP Global).
Material from a press release was used in this report.
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