AltSchool gets $33 million in venture capital

Silicon Valley's deepest pockets have decided to buy into that plan, feeding $33 million of venture capital into San Francisco startup AltSchool, company founder Max Ventilla said Tuesday.

 

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In the public school world, that much money would be enough to support a small school district for a year or pay the annual salaries of more than 400 experienced teachers.

Ventilla plans to mostly spend it on engineers.

The AltSchool computer whizzes will design software and applications that make payroll, hiring, admissions, facilities services, purchasing and other services - typically done by a school district's central office staff - electronically seamless, Ventilla said.

That will allow for huge savings, he added.

"We believe we can get the cost of an outstanding education below public school averages in the next few years while actually improving quality," said Ventilla, formerly of Google and the co-founder of Aardvark, a search company acquired by Google.

 

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Ventilla's business model got financial backing from Founders Fund as well as Andreessen Horowitz, a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen, co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used Web browser, and Silicon Valley veteran and investor Ben Horowitz.

"Improving education is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and yet less than 1 percent of education-related expenditures are allocated to the kind of research and development that could bring primary education into the 21st century," Brian Singerman, general partner at Founders Fund, said in a statement.

"It's not every day that we see top-notch technologists coming together with exceptional teachers to rethink schooling from the ground up."

Ventilla also has backing from investor John Doerr, who has backed the entrepreneurs responsible for Google, Amazon, Intuit and Zynga.

AltSchool opened its first school in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood in September. There are now about 20 students, ranging from kindergarten to middle-school age.

 

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In the one-room, high-tech schoolhouse, there are white boards and computerized wall projections, a computer-driven sound system and thermostats controlled by iPhones. Every student has a personalized iPad Mini to check school e-mail and assignments sent by the teachers.

The company has building leases in San Francisco to house a dozen more similar classrooms this fall and is looking for space to expand in the East Bay and Palo Alto.

With many bugs already worked out and systems in place, new sites can ramp up very quickly, and because it's a private company, they don't always have to open in the fall. They can open a school whenever they want.

"It's one of the benefits of our model," Ventilla said. "It's pretty easy to start schools."

Because of high San Francisco rents, the AltSchool tuition is $19,100 now. In the East Bay, it will be closer to $14,000 or $15,000.

Those costs will continue to go down, Ventilla said.

By comparison, though the cost of each student at public schools ranges, state funding is expected to increase to more than $10,000 in San Francisco and Oakland over the next few years. Federal and local funding would add to that.

Investors liked the idea of funding a company that aims to address demand and needed innovation in education, Ventilla said.

"The best investors want to do what you're doing before they even met you," he said. "You can create enormous good through companies that have the ability to attract capital and talent and provide benefit at scale."

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Twitter: @jilltucker