DC Community Ventures (DCCV), a community development venture capital firm based in Washington DC, announced that it closed an investment in LearnZillion as part of the company's series A round of funding that totaled $2.4 million. Other investors in the round include O'Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, Learn Capital Venture Partners, NewSchools Venture Fund, Citybridge Foundation, ULU Ventures, and Calvert Social Investment Fund.

LearnZillion (www.learnzillion.com) is a web-based platform that gives students, teachers and parents access to a video library of 3- to 5-minute, high quality, standards-based math and literacy lessons taught by many of the nation's best teachers. The platform allows teachers to customize instruction with individualized student playlists, while providing assessment and analytics tools that allow students, parents and teachers to track student progress.



According to co-Managing Partner Karim Zia, "LearnZillion is positioned to fundamentally enhance student learning by allowing teachers to personalize instruction. Having served as Board Treasurer at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington DC for the last five years, I have worked closely with Eric Westendorf, Co-Founder of LearnZillion and a former principal and Chief Academic Officer at E.L. Haynes. This relationship provided a window into the genesis of LearnZillion as it was incubated as a project at the school to target instruction and help teachers share best practices. We are thrilled to see LearnZillion now being used in over 20 district and charter schools in Washington DC as a professional development tool and a strategy for personalizing instruction during class time."



Mayor Vincent Gray will visit LearnZillion on Thursday, March 29th to recognize the social enterprise for its innovative work with DC teachers and its successful closing of a series A financing.



About DC Community Ventures



Established in 2011, DC Community Ventures is a community development venture capital firm with a dual focus of investing in companies in the Greater Washington, DC area that create jobs for low to moderate income employees or provide goods and services to underserved communities, and delivering favorable returns for its investors. The Fund focuses mostly on mid- to late-stage investments, specifically in businesses that are currently generating profits or have significant profit potential. DC Community Ventures also seeks to co-invest with other CDVC funds, traditional VC funds, and institutional investors in equity or debt investments.