Douglas Barton

Emerge - The first check for founders defining the future of work and learning Emerge is a global pre-seed fund backed by 100+ of the world’s best future of work and learning operators. Our vision is to democratise access to opportunity – by being a catalytic partner for early-stage founders, providing first-cheque financial support, ongoing expertise and access to a community who have ‘been there and built it’ with unrivalled market-specific know-how. Founded in 2014 as Europe’s only edtech specialist fund, Emerge now invests in B2B and B2C startups across all categories enabling people to grow and fulfil their potential, from early childhood, K12 and higher education through to lifelong learning, workforce development, career navigation and the future of work. Emerge has invested in over 80 companies, now valued at over $2b and impacting more than 31M people worldwide, including Yoto, Causaly, Colossyan, Edurino, Mattilda, Unibuddy, MyEdSpace and Solvely. Emerge invests anywhere between $250k and $2.5M at pre-seed and seed. The team welcomes direct applications - apply through our website. Read more about Emerge’s investment thesis and the startup ideas we’re excited by in our Fund II manifesto linked below.

Emerge - The first check for founders defining the future of work and learning Emerge is a global pre-seed fund backed by 100+ of the world’s best future of work and learning operators. Our vision is to democratise access to opportunity – by being a catalytic partner for early-stage founders, providing first-cheque financial support, ongoing expertise and access to a community who have ‘been there and built it’ with unrivalled market-specific know-how. Founded in 2014 as Europe’s only edtech specialist fund, Emerge now invests in B2B and B2C startups across all categories enabling people to grow and fulfil their potential, from early childhood, K12 and higher education through to lifelong learning, workforce development, career navigation and the future of work. Emerge has invested in over 80 companies, now valued at over $2b and impacting more than 31M people worldwide, including Yoto, Causaly, Colossyan, Edurino, Mattilda, Unibuddy, MyEdSpace and Solvely. Emerge invests anywhere between $250k and $2.5M at pre-seed and seed. The team welcomes direct applications - apply through our website. Read more about Emerge’s investment thesis and the startup ideas we’re excited by in our Fund II manifesto linked below.

Trusted advisor to 5000+ schools and 1 million students across Australia, UK, South Africa, USA and Singapore. Over the last 20 years Elevate’s quest has been to unlock the secret to the final years of school: Why do the top students get the top marks? Having carried out an exhaustive process of benchmarking the study habits of thousands of past students, we have identified a number of areas where the practices of the top students differ from average or lower performing students. It is our belief and experience that any student can improve their marks by tapping into, replicating and using these study skills and techniques. This simple, yet incredibly powerful approach has seen Elevate’s award winning programmes adopted in over 2000 schools across Australia, the UK, South Africa, the USA and Singapore and shared with 500,000 students annually. Elevate Education is a past winner of the Nescafé Big Break Awards in 2002, the NSW Telstra Business of the Year in 2014 and publisher of “Science of Student Success”, a study guide that has sold over 10,000 copies and takes readers into the minds of the top students. Schools use Elevate Education in order to get the most out of their study skills program. In doing so, schools have thrown out the tired old approach to study skills: old presenters the students cannot relate to; long sessions that push attention spans; one-off sessions without follow-up, and moved to a new approach to study skills.