When Chuck Cohn, BSBA ’08, was a junior at Olin, he saw an opportunity to put his smart WashU classmates to work. In 2007, he launched Varsity Tutors as a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction. Varsity Tutors has grown rapidly since then, expanding nationally to connect nearly 50,000 students to more than 15,000 thoroughly vetted instructors.
With a mission to accelerate the academic achievement of all students by improving access to high-quality education, Varsity Tutors launched Varsity Learning Tools in 2013—an ambitious quest to provide free academic content to students worldwide. To date, students have accessed more than 40 million problems on Varsity Learning Tools.
In November, Varsity Tutors announced $50 million in Series B funding from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), musician and TV personality Adam Levine, and education executive Stuart Udell, among others. The new round of funding follows a previously unannounced $7 million in Series A funding from Answers Corporation executives and WashU alumni David Karandish, BSCS ’05, and Chris Sims, BSCS ’05, that closed in May 2014.
“We are excited to announce our new partnership with TCV,” Cohn said. “We now have the financial support and resources of world-class Internet investors who can help Varsity Tutors develop its technology and expand access to high-quality, live, video-based expertise on both web and mobile.”
