District-based EverFi scored a deal last week with the National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association to bring science, technology, math and engineering instruction to students in cities with hockey teams across the United States and Canada.
Hockey and STEM studies may be an odd pairing, but the online program, called "Future Goals," will use the sport to teach such concepts as acceleration, thermodynamics and geometry, said Jon Chapman, co-founder and chief strategy officer.
Imagine, for example, students learning angles by setting up the perfect slap shot.
Chapman said the program will target “students that are in the sweet spot where we focus on teaching STEM, which is really fourth to eighth grade ... to get them to have a unique perspective and get them interested in STEM careers.”
EverFi’s roster of partners includes corporations, sports organizations, charitable groups and entertainers, including Capital One, Neustar, the National Basketball Association and “Happy” singer Pharrell Williams.
More than 9 million students have used its programs to date, Chapman said.
Founded in 2008, EverFi announced in January it would move to a 22,000 square foot work space in Georgetown’s Papermill building. It also opened offices in Chicago and Boston earlier this year.
The company's financial backers include New Enterprise Associates, Blackboard and Social Radar founder Michael Chasen, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, and Amazon.com founder and Washington Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos, among others.
A serving for gravy
Leesburg-based Gravy spooned $4 million into its coffers last week.
The start-up debuted as an application where users could find nearby events. It now uses that information to track where they spend their time, such country music concerts, literary festivals or sporting events.
That information is valuable to advertisers who want to connect with audiences who are most likely to buy their products and services, said co-founder and chief executive Jeff White. It's similar, he said, to Web cookies that monitor where people spend time online.
The latest infusion of capital brings Gravy’s total haul to $10 million. The money will be used to court more customers and hire additional staff. The company counts 16 employees to date.
“We’ve gotten the platform built. We’ve gotten our first big pilot partners testing us. Now it’s all about adding scale to the business,” White said.
The company is also adding to its board of directors.
Richard Braddock, a serial executive with stints at Citibank, Medco Containment Services, Priceline and FreshDirect, will become chairman. He is joined by Linda Gridley, the founder, president and chief executive of investment banking firm Gridley & Co.
Both Braddock and Gridley contributed to the latest round.