AI’s coming to the classroom: Brisk raises $15M after a quick start in school

It’s virtually impossible at this time to find out when a pupil’s writing has been composed utilizing ChatGPT or one other GenAI device, and it may be a nightmare to disprove incorrect accusations. An AI edtech startup referred to as Brisk has constructed a device that might no less than assist academics determine a few of the telltale indicators, and it’s now asserting $15 million in new funding on the again of respectable traction.

Alongside a writing inspector, Brisk’s platform affords round 40 instruments for academics and college students to make use of by the use of a Chrome extension. The platform makes use of generative AI, laptop imaginative and prescient and different AI options that Brisk says may also help not solely velocity up work, however do the work higher. These embody writing lesson plans, checks and displays; adjusting work for various skills; grading work, and extra. 

“The prevailing edtech stack as we all know it, which is round 140 totally different instruments that the common instructor within the U.S. makes use of in a given faculty 12 months, just isn’t prepared for AI,” Brisk’s CEO and founder Arman Jaffer stated in an interview. “We’re attempting to construct the AI-native edtech stack.”

The funding might be utilized in half to construct extra instruments, and partly to increase to extra platforms. A Microsoft integration, aimed on the many faculties which can be Microsoft outlets, is deliberate for autumn 2025. 

Enterprise has thus far been brisk for San Francisco-based Brisk. Because it raised a seed spherical of $5 million in September 2024, its person base has grown five-fold, and Jaffer stated the corporate had “40x’d” its income in 2024 (it’s value noting that the corporate was ranging from zero). Brisk says greater than 2,000 colleges in 100 international locations use its merchandise at this time, and greater than 90% of its enterprise comes from inbound curiosity. One in 5 Ok-12 academics within the U.S. have put in the Brisk Extension as of February 2025, Jaffer added.

Bessemer Enterprise Companions is main the spherical, with earlier backers Owl Ventures, South Park Commons, and Springbank Collective additionally taking part. 

Brisk’s funding and progress come at a time when know-how and training have gotten more and more intertwined.

Educators have spent years embracing an rising array of know-how to enhance how they work in addition to to offset different main modifications of their instruments (such because the decline of textbooks) and different areas, corresponding to funds cuts. (The recent DoE changes in the U.S. have but to play out, but it surely has raised considerations that they are going to spell but extra erosion of sources.)

Enter tech, the place adoption is simple, in a way. There are actually tons of of startups and far bigger know-how giants rolling out edtech apps. Some outfits cater on to college students and households, just like the immense Khan Academy empire, whereas others direct themselves at colleges and educators such because the suites developed by Google and Microsoft.

And, simply as enterprises have embraced consumerization of their IT departments — on the lookout for apps which have the identical usability as the most well-liked shopper apps — so have academics on the lookout for inroads to attach with college students. Kahoot is a key instance of how training has been ‘gamified,’ the idea being that is a technique of creating studying extra accessible.

AI is yet one more step in edtech’s pure evolution. AI firms are constructing studying instruments to that finish, and their fundamental pitch is very similar to Brisk’s: AI is coming whether or not you prefer it or not, and it’ll make everybody’s lives higher.

However as with different segments of the world of labor and play, not all AI strikes are obtained with open arms. OpenAI’s academics’ information to ChatGPT — launched in November 2024, arguably nicely after the horse had bolted — was met with criticism over the larger points that it failed to handle round accuracy and information safety. 

Jaffer based Brisk after spending time in edtech in a unique capability. He spent greater than 5 years on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the place he conceived of and led a staff constructing Notebooks, a Google Docs various aimed toward bettering collaboration between college students and academics. Finally, Notebooks did not take off, not least as a result of, nicely, Google Docs does the job, but additionally as a result of AI actually modifications the sport for collaboration. That ethos was carried into Jaffer’s subsequent swing of the founder bat.

If utilizing AI rings alarm bells, Brisk needs to muffle that with a measured strategy: help, not substitute.

The corporate’s pupil writing inspector doesn’t conclude “this was written by ChatGPT.” It begins with a video of a pupil’s work course of on-screen, which it then watches in fast-motion, flagging when that pupil has copy/pasted data or is in any other case doing different issues which can be uncharacteristic of how they work. That is then despatched on to the instructor who can assess whether or not it might be a sign of copying from some other place, or if the work was certainly created by GenAI.

The preferred device within the stack, “Targeted Feedback,” makes use of generative AI to learn pupil essays (on Google Docs) and create feedback which can be tailor-made to age, a grading rubric or different requirements in the event that they’ve been uploaded or chosen. Earlier than something is shared with college students, academics can overview and edit the feedback (within the best-case state of affairs, they’re doing that fairly than simply shifting them together with no oversight).

Whether or not the concept of AI taking over a few of academics’ work, and perhaps even doing it higher, is cherished or feared on this planet of training, plainly the development line is simply too clear to be ignored, stated Kent Bennett, the Bessemer accomplice who led this funding.

“We’re huge believers at this AI second in monitoring sectors like training know-how, which have a status for being tech phobic. This status typically arises as a result of the high-value workflow in these environments includes human language, and thus wasn’t as addressable with legacy software program – with LLMs all of that may change,” he informed TechCrunch in an e mail change.

“[But] one of many largest surprises as we appeared into AI powered ed-tech was that educators weren’t simply tolerating AI, they’re aggressively looking for it out,” he stated, including that it’s “apparent” that academics can’t be lower out of the equation altogether. 

Trying ahead, Brisk might be constructing extra immersive instruments past its extensions. Later this 12 months, it will likely be switching on a brand new internet platform in order that “educators can work cohesively and natively inside the Brisk atmosphere.” It would embody new sources and actions, Jaffer stated. 

Brisk additionally needs to supply extra “multimodal” integrations. These will embody the power for college students to submit image-based work, along with textual content, for evaluations; and a “podcast” characteristic to generate audio variations to explain paperwork and extra.