Education recruitment platform Zen Educate has raised £5.6m in funding to expand its platform beyond London.
It claims the round is the largest for a teacher recruitment technology business outside of the US.
Founded in 2017, the firm’s online platform connects supply teachers with openings in schools in London and now in Manchester.
The firm aims to bring on an additional 2,000 schools and 20,000 teachers, while growing their 20-person team to 60 by the end of the year.
The firm, co-founded by Oren Cohen and Slava Kremerman, is now working with 10 per cent of school in the capital.
It claims that schools using platform to hire staff normally make savings of between 20 and 30 per cent on the cost of supply cover.
The platform’s approach to hiring teachers has saved the education system £600,000 since its launch in 2017, it said.
The firm has now set itself the goal of saving the education system £100m per year by 2024.
“UK schools are under an immense amount of financial pressure right now,” said chief executive Kremerman.
“That’s why we’re committed to cutting down supply cover costs significantly so they can spend more on what matters – the children – not on agency fees. By removing the middleman, teachers and schools can cover staff absence with ease, reducing uncertainty, increasing wages and saving costs.”
The funding follows two angel investment rounds in 2017 and 2018 which totalled £2.6m, bringing its total funding to date to £8.2m.
Ben Wirz, partner at Brighteye Advisors, added: “Until now, the education staffing industry has relied upon inefficient and expensive ‘pen and paper’ practices – teachers and schools alike deserve a solution that’s fit-for-purpose in the 21stcentury.
“The team at Zen Educate have incredible insight into the pain points the industry is experiencing and from speaking to schools that use them, it is clear they are solving a real problem for the education system.”