Penmark Inc., which operates the course management SNS "Penmark" for college students, has raised a series A round from Maezawa Fund Co., Ltd. with the theme of promoting DX (digital transformation) of university life. bottom.Based on this funding, we will strengthen our organizational structure in order to further strengthen our services and expand our market share.
Penmark Inc. is a startup from Keio University established in December 2018, and Naoaki Yokoyama, a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Economics at Keio University, serves as the CEO.The course management SNS "Penmark" for university students operated by the company creates courses based on lesson data and lesson reviews optimized for each university such as Keio University, Tokyo University, Waseda University, and Tokyo Institute of Technology. be able to.In addition, it is equipped with a talk room where students who are taking the same class can exchange information, a function to manage notes, assignments and attendance, and a calendar function to check university-specific schedules, so that university students can consistently carry out their learning activities. to support.
When the official version of the app was released on April 2020, 4, the number of supported universities exceeded 1, and the cumulative number of installations exceeded 100.With campuses closed at universities nationwide due to the effects of the new coronavirus, the need for "Penmark", which allows you to connect with all classmates with a single app, has increased, and the number of comments in the in-class talk room in 5 has increased. It is about 1 times that of 2020.
With this funding, we will evolve into a service of "university life that connects all classmates and all information with one app".Starting with making friends, registering and managing courses, looking for circles and part-time jobs, exchanging information during exams, and becoming a senior student, we aim to realize a DX of university life that can be used for seminar information, internships, and job hunting.
Yusaku Maezawa, CEO of the Maezawa Fund, who provided the funds, said, "I was attracted to the vision of creating an app that is indispensable for university students by DXing the entire university life, starting with course management.For me, who has never been to college, I hope it will be an app that has the discovery, encounters, and inspiration that makes me want to go to college to use this app.It's okay to be a college student, and it's around this time that the grass next door looks blue. "
