News
High Peaks Closes Investment in Revolutionary Education Publisher; Flat World Knowledge, Inc.
Troy, New York, March 25, 2009 – High Peaks Venture Partners is pleased to announce the closing of an $8M Series A financing of Flat World Knowledge (FWK) in concert with syndicate partners Valhalla Partners and Greenhill SAVP.
Flat World Knowledge (www.flatworldknowledge.com), based in Nyack, NY, is a next generation educational content business that aims to disrupt the $8B annual college textbook market. The company believes this is the perfect timing to enter the market with a fundamentally disruptive model based on 4 key principles:
- Provide first class content from top quality authors
- Deliver content in an open format with flexibility for faculty members to customize and supplement the text
- Make core content available online for free while printed copies and a la carte supplemental materials generate revenue
- Enhance the student experience by facilitating a vibrant, collaborative social learning network around the core content.
Due to increasing frustration with current industry practices and pricing models, FWK has been met with praise and excitement from industry analysts, textbook authors, college faculty and students alike who see this as a fundamentally new model that existing publishers will not be able to match.
“The college textbook publishing market is ripe for the sort of radical disruption in the coming years that the internet has brought to other traditional content industries. We believe that the fundamental business model of the traditional textbook industry is no better suited for the 21st century than those of the record and newspaper industries,” commented Brad Svrluga, Managing Director of High Peaks Venture Partners, who has been following the company for well over a year. “The existing model is broken, and dissatisfaction is growing amongst students and faculty alike. Pricing is egregious and getting worse, and the content delivery model is inflexible. Flat World Knowledge offers a delivery model that is flexible, open, suited to the media consumption habits of today’s students and, ultimately, better for students and faculty alike. As students at state and community colleges are increasingly hit with textbook bills that approach the size of their tuition bills we have watched a wave of opposition swell from students, faculty, authors, and even the US Congress. Until Flat World there was no viable commercial alternative. We are very excited to be helping bring this important solution to market. And most importantly, we are thrilled to be doing it with a team of this caliber. Jeff and Eric are exactly the right guys to make this happen – their experience and respect in the industry is unparalleled and represents the perfect formula for driving this critical industry change.”
“The timing of this latest investment could not be better,” said Jeff Shelstad, co-founder and chief executive officer of Flat World Knowledge. “In these uncertain economic times, we all are looking for the best value for our preferred products and services. Administrators, parents, faculty, and students are very intrigued by and attracted to the value provided by the Flat World Knowledge model. With this further investment, we can continue to scale our sales and marketing activities, staff up our acquisition talent to attract more talented authors to Flat World Knowledge, and improve the overall experience for our customers. We are very grateful for the financial support of our investors.”
