Georgian Partners Announces Investment In Top Hat

Investment to fund continued growth and further expansion

TORONTO, May 22, 2014 /CNW/ - Georgian Partners (http://www.georgianpartners.com/), a growth equity firm investing in expansion-stage software companies, announced today it has invested in Top Hat, a revolutionary teaching platform that makes teaching effective and fun. Top Hat enables professors to present their lectures, annotate their slides, share their notes with students, ask questions in class, facilitate discussions, and grade their students.

Georgian Partners led the $10M Series B round with participation from existing investors Emergence Capital Partners, iNovia Capital, SoftTech VC, Version One Ventures and Golden Venture Partners.

"The higher education sector is facing huge challenges in terms of student participation and performance," said Justin LaFayette, co-founder and Managing Partner of Georgian Partners. "The Top Hat teaching platform is successful because it directly improves student engagement and is helping predict when students need help."

'We're delighted to have Georgian Partners join the team," said Mike Silagadze, Top Hat co-founder and CEO. "Their Applied Analytics thesis is aligned with our vision for how Top Hat can provide analytical insights that directly improve student outcomes."

Originally developed as classroom engagement tool Top Hat has quickly evolved into a full teaching platform that handles everything from content delivery to assessment and engagement. Top Hat recently extended its market leading mobile device support with a new teacher app that allows instructors to run their classes directly from their iPad including presenting PowerPoint® slides, making annotations and launching questions directly from the app.

Top Hat will use the new funding to continue to further accelerate adoption of its teaching platform and extend its product leadership.

About Georgian Partners:

Georgian Partners is a growth equity firm investing in expansion stage Enterprise Software, Internet and Information companies that are exploiting Applied Analytics: the convergence of Cloud-based business solutions, Big Data, and broad Information Rights. Founded by successful entrepreneurs and technology executives, Georgian Partners leverages our global software expertise to be able to directly impact the success of companies. For more information, visit www.georgianpartners.com

About Top Hat

Top Hat is a mobile and web-based classroom response system that engages students and provides professors with real-time feedback on student understanding. Founded in 2009, Top Hat has been ranked as a top 10 app in the education category in Apple's App Store. Using a BYOD approach, educators use Top Hat to conduct polls, quizzes, assign homework or run interactive tournaments. It is currently used by more than 300,000 students at more than 400 universities, including UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Harvard. The company, which has 80 employees, is backed by $20 million in venture funding and has offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and Toronto. www.tophat.com

SOURCE: Georgian Partners

Scott Rosenblum [phone], [email protected]

http://www.georgianpartners.com