TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — SOPHIA.org, the online education platform offering a unique Many Ways to Learn™ learning model with more than 28,000 free academic multimedia tutorials taught by a multitude of teachers, has partnered with New Classrooms – a nonprofit organization that gives students a targeted, individualized learning experience based on their unique learning needs – to provide a free resource for students focused on middle school math concepts.

Through this partnership, SOPHIA is offering New Classrooms branded learning pathways specifically designed to support its Teach to One: Math program.”

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Capella Education Company (NYSE: CPLA) has acquired Minneapolis startup Sophia Learning on undisclosed terms. Launched just 13 months ago, Sophia is a social teaching and learning platform that connects students and teachers worldwide with tutorials on a huge range of academic topics.

Developed by GoKart Labs, the Sophia community of students and teachers has grown to encompass over 170 different countries, representing over 5,000 schools and universities.  The startup had made its own purchase last year when Guaranteach was acquired. Capella plans to expand the reach through the new wholly owned subsidiary to offer nearly 30,000 academic tutorials and quizzes in areas including Algebra, Geometry, Physics, Chemistry and English.

Capella was Sophia’s original outside investor and the former employer of Sophia and GoKart Labs founder Don Smithmier.

By Elizabeth Millard, The Line

“In classrooms around the world, Sophia is proving to be a very popular and very smart girl. The online education site went live last March and experienced an overwhelming response, with people logging on from nearly 70 countries in just the first two days.

Now, just seven months later, Sophia has grown from start-up to robust enterprise, expanding from six to 13 full-time employees, plus approximately 25 contractors and consultants. Founder and CEO Don Smithmier, whom we profiled in February, anticipates more hiring in the coming year, as Sophia ramps up even more.”

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The Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) honored more than a dozen Minnesota-based technology and innovation leaders with a 2011 Tekne Award during tonight’s  ceremony at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

“The Tekne Awards recognize innovative technology achievements across a range of fields, from manufacturing to sustainable technologies to non-profit organizations”

Congratulations to the following companies:

Computer Hardware and Electronics Devices: Global Traffic Technologies

Edutech: Sophia Learning

Collaboration of the year: Maverick Software

Mobile: GeaCom

Software: Imation (large) & Calabrio (small)

Technology services/consulting: Thomson Reuters (large) & Apex (small)

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Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS (August 29, 2011)  – Sophia, a first-of-its-kind online social teaching and learning platform that offers academic content to anyone, anywhere, free of charge, has nearly doubled its tutorials in the six months since it went public and currently offers 1,500 learning packets on a variety of subjects.

Sophia also has partnered with Smarthinking, which provides live, on-demand online tutoring to improve student success and retention. After much research and exploration by Sophia’s expert educators, Smarthinking, the market leader in online tutoring and academic support, was selected to be linked within the learning environment for subjects such as math and English, on Sophia.org.  Smarthinking, a member of the Pearson family, has provided more than 3.5 million successful online tutoring sessions since 1999.”

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Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS, May 19, 2011 / — Sophia, a first-of-its-kind online social teaching and learning platform that offers academic content to anyone, anywhere free of charge, announced today that it has acquired Guaranteach, a Web-based service that provides tens of thousands of short-form tutorials along with assessment tools to students, teachers, colleges and schools.

With the acquisition, Sophia will combine the best features of both platforms by offering the Guaranteach portfolio of tutorials – previously available on a pay-per-use basis to schools – to individual learners around the world at no cost. In addition, the acquisition will create a stronger social learning solution available for licensed use by K-12 districts and higher education institutions.”

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TechCrunch adds some nice depth.

Via News Release

“Capella Education Company (NASDAQ: CPLA), a provider of exclusively online post-secondary education through its wholly owned subsidiary Capella University has invested in an innovative startup company called Sophia – a social teaching and learning platform that integrates education with technology.

Sophia was designed to connect people who want to learn with people who want to teach, and is expected to become a tool to help support current and potential Capella students as well as the general public.”

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The actual investment amount is not disclosed in this press release — guess we’ll just have to wait for the SEC docs to surface.  Capella may not be a Fortune 500, although  they did makes Forbes 2010 list (#71) of the 100 fastest growing companies in the country.  It’s great to see a promising local startup backed by such a successful publicly traded Minnesota company!

Having previously featured 9/10 of last night’s Minnedemo presenters, today is less on what our audience already knows about these unique Minnesota startups (videos below) and more on cultural impact of last nights big event on Minnesota’s tech community.

Relatively few were paying attention in the beginning when a small group of enthusiasts would gather somewhere like the (then Franklin Ave) Acadia Cafe or Chiang Mai Thai Restaurant to share their budding projects with peers; based on a historical context of the past three alone, one thing is clear: Minnedemo is now on a whole new level.

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After a year of prototyping, fundraising and development,  social teaching and learning network Sophia is alive in private beta.

Sophia was created by GoKart Labs, a ‘digital innovation shop’ we previously know from collaborations with BringMeTheNews.com.  Prior to GoKart, CEO and Co-founder Don Smithmier had 14 years of employment with online education org Capella before leaving three years ago to start the new firm with partner A.J. Meyer.

“Online education still seems to be stuck in the 90′s — not really embracing the new generation of web. 2.0 technologies that appeal to the modern pedagogy of social learning,” says Smithmier. “Sophia began with the premise that there are millions of great ideas, methods, lessons and people who can contribute to our society’s  goal of spreading knowledge and making education better and more effective.”

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