German edtech Knowunity, a TikTok for schoolwork, raises €9m Series A extension

And Berlin-based Knowunity launched by four 20-something entrepreneurs in 2020 thinks its captured the Gen Z zeitgeist with a peer-to-peer online learning platform that doubles as a creator economy app. The platform has had more than 600k study notes uploaded by students across a variety of subjects.The companys just scooped up a 9m Series A extension, bringing the round total to 19m after a 10m raise last year a vote of confidence for the edtech sector given the fall in European deals last year. Users upload their own personal study notes and other resources to help fellow students grasp their school curricula and prepare for exams. Catering to Gen Z, Knowunity also has creator tools allowing students to publish reels and videos, create profiles and build up personal followings. The ones who upload the best and most popular content have up to 200k followers on the platform, says Kurz.Students dont get paid outright for uploading content, but some of the top knowers on the platform get small payouts on a monthly basis what Kurz refers to as pocket money which can be up to 250 a month depending on their success.Kurz is quick to add that the key incentive for students to upload content is not the cash reward but the social recognition theyre receiving from others and [the] intrinsic motivation to help others.Each piece of content is manually checked by Knowunity before being uploaded, but the platform offers pre-upload guidelines about what a helpful piece of content would look like.Knowunity has experienced strong growth in the last year, increasing its user base by 2m to 5.7m in the last quarter of 2022 alone, according to the companys data.The company is already present in Austria, Switzerland, France, Poland, the UK and Italy and has set its sights on expanding to the US in the coming months something that Kurz is aware can be challenging for European companies because the market is that huge.Its likely the company will also launch in Spain in April, and will perhaps expand to other continents at the end of 2023 or early 2024, says Kurz.It plans to also grow its headcount from 75 employees to 110-120 by the end of the year, but Kurz says the company will be disciplined about it to prevent the company from overhiring.Miriam Partington is Sifteds DACH correspondent.