Blu Venture Investors Lead $4 Million Financing in Pearl

Eric Adler

The tutor-management platform Pearl on Tuesday said it raised $4.75 million in a seed round led by Blu Venture Investors, of Vienna, Va. New York-based FiDi Ventures was among other investors who participated in the seed round.

Headquartered in Richmond, Va., Pearl — which was previously known as Trilogy Mentors LLC — has raised nearly $6.75 million so far, including a $1.1 million debt round in 2020 led by Baltimore-based angel investors and some ed-tech firms. In 2019, it raised $835,000 in a pre-seed round led by Rosetta Stone.

Pearl started as a “scrappy in-person tutoring company that connected Richmond-area students with local mentors,” as the company termed it on its website. But an emerging hybrid learning model, accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, convinced founder-CEO John Failla that the better opportunity existed in developing a single “all-in-one tool” to help a range of educators manage their businesses.

Today, Pearl runs a cloud-based SaaS service that enables tutoring providers, and districts and state agencies, to run hybrid programs, with a number of bells and whistles to boot. The platform, for example, allows educators to launch branded tutoring programs, and conduct student evaluations.Pearl also licenses its software to companies, educational institutions and freelancers.

‘Right Service at the Right Time’

Eric Adler, a 20-year industry veteran and a Blu Venture partner who oversees its investment in Pearl, believes the ed-tech startup has got the “right service in the right place at the right time.”Its platform provides a “strong solution to a real problem,” helping schools and districts to use their new resources to move from wanting to provide tutoring to actually doing it in a professional and accountable way that meets all government requirements, he added.

Adler previously confounded The SEED Foundation, which runs tuition-free college prep boarding schools in undeserved inner cities, and ran it for 19 years. He has also been a teacher and dean of students at St. Paul’s School, and also served on the board of Swarth more College.

Blu Venture Nears $100 Million Mark

Blu Venture, founded in 2010, has invested nearly $100 million in 84 startups, focusing on SaaS and technology ventures. Its most recent fund of $25 million was raised last year. Blu’s portfolio investments this year include Zeeve, Cybera, Sprockets, Todyl and Comm Safe AI.

J.S. Gamble, one of the firm’s founders, serves as Blu’s managing partner. He previously worked at consulting firms McKinsey and Price Waterhouse. Gamble briefly served as acting CEO of Smart Imaging Systems, and has been an adviser to several portfolio companies.He is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Strong Entrepreneurial Roots

FiDiVentures, founded in 2021, is led by founder and CEO Matt Straz and Michael Manne, both of whom remain active entrepreneurs. Straz previously founded two other startups — the employment benefits platform Bennie, which he still helms, and HR/payroll firm Namely. Manne serves as the chief revenue officer at fintech document automation platform Ocrolus.