A New Yorker who moved to London to set up educational video hub Mobento has secured £1.1m in funding, representing one of ‘Tech City’s’ largest recorded first-rounds of investment.
The founder of Mobento, Sumner Murphy, moved from New York to London last year to set up the company, attracted by Londons lively technology start up environment and the City’s access to global markets.
Mobento has developed a video learning environment that blends technology with a commitment to high quality content.
A curated library of educational videos is made available to schools and students through a web site and a growing family of mobile apps.
Mobento Search allows users to search the entire archive of content for the words that were spoken. For example, a student might type in the word Enzymes and find a set of lectures and videos from Yale, TED, Khan Academy and Bozman Science where speakers mention the word.
Users can also can also go straight to the moment in the video timeline where the speaker uses the word.
Sumner Murphy, founder of Mobento comments: “Video is an incredibly powerful tool in education. It slots right into the behaviour and customs of contemporary students and it is a democratising and liberating force within education because it enables the worlds best educators to reach out to students all over the world.”
The investors are a small consortium of businessmen and ‘high net worth’ individuals who follow the London Tech City start up scene.
Speaking about the balance of technology and content Murphy said: “Were bringing a two-pronged solution to learning. First, we are dealing with the huge amount of dross out there by making sure we only allow the very finest content into the Mobento library. This means you can be absolutely certain that you will always and only find high quality teaching at Mobento.”
“The second prong is the technology. Even with our zealous curation of great content we know students benefit from help to find precisely the right content, the first time, in no time. Thats where Mobento Search and other technologies make a huge difference.”
Benjamin Southworth, Deputy CEO of Tech City comments: “Mobentos decision to base themselves here is further proof that Tech City is the ideal location to scale and grow a successful digital business. Quick access to Europe and our heritage of creativity and innovation make London attractive for digital media and tech companies. Whilst the blend of creativity and innovation that exists in East London with easy access to the financial centre of the City is also a major advantage. It is this thriving ecosystem made up of start-ups, small companies, academic organisations, investors and large corporates that has made Tech City the digital capital of Europe.”
http://www.mobento.com/