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Gaia Learning, a Baltic Ventures portfolio company and Accelerator 2023 graduate, has raised £550,000 in funding.
The round was led by Nesta Impact Investments (Nesta) with Manchester-based GC Angels also co-investing. The funding will support the company’s ability to provide online educational support for neurodivergent children across the UK.
The investment will facilitate Gaia Learning’s expansion both nationally and internationally.
Gaia Learning offers live online classes tailored to neurodivergent students aged 8-16, including those with ADHD and autism.
“We’re so pleased to have our new investment partners on board and them acknowledging the potential in all we do at Gaia Learning to help school partners, learners and their families,” said CEO Kate Longworth, who was chosen to take part in Baltic Ventures’ inaugural flagship accelerator programme in 2023.
“We have tripled our learners this academic year, grown our team to 12 staff members and seen huge demand from children who are struggling in mainstream education. Now, more than ever, schools need flexible, digital solutions that can scale within budget supporting each neurodivergent child’s needs.”
Gaia Learning CEO Kate Longworth at Baltic Ventures’ Demo Day in 2024
Founded in 2019, Gaia Learning has grown from a small, specialised tuition service to an award-winning online school. It is a Cambridge Registered International School Online and the first online provider to receive the ADHD Friendly School award from the ADHD Foundation in 2023.
Lisa Barclay, executive director of investments at Nesta, said one of their key areas of focus is to narrow the education attainment gap and described Gaia Learning’s solution to tackle this challenge as “compelling”.
She said: “We backed Gaia learning as both a promising high growth business and as a solution to tackle the acute gap between education outcomes of students with special educational needs and the average. “Students with an Education Health and Care Plan, who Gaia Learning typically supports, at a national level have outcomes at GCSE eight times worse than the average.”
Marc Shirman, head of investments at GC Angels, described the growth that Gaia Learning has achieved so far as “commendable” and highlighted the team’s purpose-left approach to helping childern who would otherwise be left behind in education.
“As the team continues to grow, and with enquiries on the up, we worked with Kate and the team to ensure Gaia Learning has the necessary investment and resources to drive further expansion and, ultimately, deliver incredible results for young people,” he added.
