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Stylus secures investment from Sure Valley Ventures to take the ‘ work ’ out of ‘ paperwork ’ in schools
Stylus , a start-up set to revolutionise teacher workloads with its AI-powered marking and feedback , has raised £ 500,000 in a recent funding round . The investment was made by Sure Valley Ventures , an AI-focused venture capital firm which supports early-stage companies to scale .
Stylus ’ AI-marked , humanmoderated feedback solution , LearnCycle , addresses the recruitment and retention crisis in education by removing whole swathes of out-ofhours work associated with marking the assessments that students complete on paper . In doing so it aims to help schools to retain teachers while maintaining high standards of feedback .
The UK education sector is currently facing significant challenges related to teacher recruitment and retention . Statistics show that 40 % of new teachers leave the profession within five years , with 92 % of these citing high workload as the primary reason . This crisis is impacting schools ’ ability to maintain high-quality education standards , as some schools resort to giving no written feedback at all to ensure their teachers ’ wellbeing .
One million small businesses worldwide now on Tide
Tide , one of the UK ’ s leading business financial platforms , has reached 1 million customers ( members ) globally , a significant milestone for the company . This includes 650,000 members in the UK and 350,000 in India , where it launched in December 2022 . Tide entered the German market in May , where it has started to roll out its product proposition .
More than one in 10 ( c . 11 %) small businesses in the UK use the Tide app . Tide provides a service for small businesses which don ’ t have their own finance function , such as sole traders and smaller limited companies . Tide offers business accounts and related banking services , including a savings account , but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected admin solutions including invoicing , accounting and company formations .
In the UK , 75 % of Tide ’ s members are based outside Greater London , with 14 % in Northwest England , 10 % in the West Midlands and 11 % in Southeast England .
Skillvue secures US $ 2.8 million funding round for AI-based skills assessment platform
The skills gap crisis has been described by the World Economic Forum as one of the biggest challenges of our time , costing roughly US $ 11.5 trillion in potential GDP growth over the next decade . The world ’ s largest companies are starting to respond by implementing a skills-based approach to address their needs . However , the approach is segmented and limited to point solutions .
Helping teams to scale the opportunity ( saving time and budget ), HR tech start-up , Skillvue , has annoucned a US $ 2.8 million funding round for its AI platform to boost better talent allocation , higher capability to anticipate job market shifts and increase retention of high-performers .
The pre-seed funding round was co-led by Italian Founders Fund ( IFF ) – the first Italian venture capital created by startup founders and led by Lorenzo Franzi and Edoardo Ermotti ’ s 14Peaks Capital . It included participation from Orbita Verticale , Ithaca 3 , the Spanish fund Kfund ( previously investors in the unicorn Factorial ) and several business angels .
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