Tablet Ed-Tech Company Pluto Media Secures $500k in Funding From Top Tier Investors Including Learn Capital, Jennifer Carolan and Peter Relan

MENLO PARK, Calif. - Pluto Media, a leading tablet edutainment company, today announces $500,000 in seed funding from top tier investor Rob Hutter of Learn Capital, along with individual investments from Jennifer Carolan of NewSchools Venture Fund and Peter Relan. This round of financing is on top of an earlier $500,000 in seed capital from investors such as former Accel partner Abhay Parekh and Dave Roux of of Silver Lake, raised in December 2011. The company plans to use this new round of funding to expand its award-winning app, Pluto Learns Piano, into a “learn, create, share” platform for education in creative subjects - starting with music. 

The game itself has already proven to be a wildly successful and popular learning tool. Over the last 12 months, songs in the game have been played over 13 million times, amounting to a total of over 30 million minutes of fun learning.

Pluto Media’s newest round brings together backers with tremendous experience across the technology and education fields, and will help to magnify the company’s reach. Investors include founding investor in Edmodo Rob Hutter, incubator mentors like YouWeb’s Peter Relan, as well as education-focused funds. Jennifer Carolan, head of seed investments for NewSchools Ventures, has also invested individually. 

“With today’s advanced technology, and tools like tablets and other multi-touch devices at our disposal, we have the opportunity to rethink how to better educate and entertain our children through play,” says Peter Relan of YouWeb. “The growing ed-tech space, with an emphasis on fun and play as a catalyst for learning, is a key trend in education 2.0, and Pluto is one of those innovative companies that uses proven design philosophies to bridge the gap between the evolving worlds of technology and education. With the success of Pluto Learns Piano, we can’t wait to share with the world the platform that the Pluto team is working on.”

Pluto Media is currently adding to its team by hiring amazing server and mobile engineers. To view open positions, visit: http://bit.ly/u5wa5R

“With the rise in popularity of education and gaming on tablets, paired with the number of children who now have access to these devices in schools and homes, the transition we’re seeing to educational gaming is a natural one,” says Pluto Media founder Luis Sampedro. “By teaming up with such a diverse group of investors including top education funds, we can make a big dent in the growing edutainment market, and change the way children learn, beginning at a young age, providing a fun experience with real-life results.”

The company’s flagship title, Pluto Learns Piano, combines scrolling gameplay dynamics with musical notes and a full multi-touch “player piano” to get children excited to learn music.  Unlike most other educational games, Pluto Learns Piano is free to play, with stars awarded based on performance in completing levels. As the player collects stars, Pluto unlocks more and more of the forty classical and folk songs. 

Pluto Media was founded by Luis Sampedro, and spun out of the YouWeb incubator, birthplace of successful gaming companies OpenFeint (acquired for $104M to GREE last year), CrowdStar, Agawi and Spaceport. Pluto continues to bring world-class educational games to tablets and smartphones since 2011.

To download Pluto Learns Piano for iPad visit: http://bit.ly/vvLlyS
        

About Pluto Media:
Pluto Media is led by Luis Sampedro, formerly an Entrepreneur in Residence at YouWeb, Inc. Pluto Media was YouWeb’s fifth incubation to spin off into its own company. Songs offered on Pluto Learns Piano have been played over 13 million times since the title launched in Dec 2011.
 

Contact Information

Kayvan Farzaneh

Account Manager

VSCpr for Pluto Media

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