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Education technology startup Teacher’s Buddy has raised $1.85 million in seed funding to tackle the global teacher burnout crisis with a platform designed to lighten the administrative load of educators and improve student outcomes.
The seed round was led by Giant Leap, with participation from Flying Fox Ventures, Co Ventures, Exhort Ventures, Saniel Ventures and Soul Capital.
“Teachers are working more than 50 hours a week, with up to a third of that time lost to planning and admin,” says Ben Sze, who co-founded Teacher’s Buddy in 2024 with Matt Abraham .
“Teacher’s Buddy aims to reverse these trends by delivering an all-in-one, AI-enhanced workspace designed to lighten the load, foster growth and unlock every student’s potential.”
Abraham, who also co-founded edtech platform Edrolo, has more than 20 years of experience in digital product development and advertising, with a decade of service on school boards providing insight into the systemic challenges faced by educators.
Teacher’s Buddy says its platform has gained early traction in the sector, attracting more than 12,000 teachers across 130 countries and securing 15 school partnerships within months of launching.
Among the schools currently leveraging the platform include are Orbost P-12 Community College and Point Cook Senior College in Australia and Kaipara College in New Zealand.
Teacher’s Buddy uses generative artificial intelligence to help educators create curriculum materials, lesson plans, administrative documents and assessment tools which are customisable to specific subjects, age groups and local curricula.
The startup estimates that within a single school term, teachers saved an average of 12 days’ worth of time using the platform, including 32 hours on planning tasks, 38 hours on marking, 16 hours on writing reports, nine hours on lesson enhancements and seven hours on meeting planning.
The seed funding will be applied to expand the startup’s engineering and product teams, build out its roadmap and scale go-to-market efforts initially across Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Teacher’s Buddy says its goal is to grow its user base to more than 30,000 teachers and 200 school partners within the next 12 months.
“We’ve set ambitious targets for the business,” says Abraham.
“But we also know we’re directly addressing a fundamental issue in global education, one that’s only getting worse. Our early traction is proof of how urgent and widespread the need for a solution really is.”
According to Australian Teacher Workforce Data’s most recent national trends report, full-time teachers in Australia work more than 50 hours a week, with lesson planning and administrative tasks consuming six to nine hours each, or nearly a third of their weekly duties.
The report says that mental health challenges are also widespread in the industry, with teachers experiencing depression, anxiety and stress at three times the national average.
“Teacher’s Buddy is addressing one of the most under-recognised levers for improving student outcomes: supporting teacher capacity,” says Adam Milgrom, partner at lead investor Giant Leap.
“When teachers are overwhelmed by administrative demands, their ability to focus on students suffers.
“By applying AI to reduce workload and streamline planning, Ben and Matt are not only improving teacher wellbeing but also enhancing learning outcomes.
“The rapid adoption of Teacher’s Buddy reflects the urgency of this challenge and the global relevance of their solution.”
Teacher burnout is also an international issue, according to the Australian Teacher Workforce Data report, as up to 75 per cent of teachers report symptoms of burnout, driven by long hours and insufficient support.
“Teacher’s Buddy is tackling one of the world’s most urgent and underfunded leverage points: giving teachers their time and energy back,” says Rachael Neumann, partner at Flying Fox Ventures.
“When educators thrive, entire generations do.”
Maxine Minter, general partner at Co Ventures, describes the education sector as "one of those white whales".
"(It's) an industry everyone knows is broken, but one that’s been tough to fix because traditional software just wasn’t built for the realities of the classroom," she says.
“With AI now in our toolkit, we finally have a chance to test those old assumptions and reimagine what it means to support teachers and educate the next generation.
“What makes this moment special is the team. It’s rare, especially in Australia, to find founders who’ve lived this problem and already built successfully in the same space.
“This inflection point in technology gives us the chance to back Ben and Matt as they take another run at a challenge they’ve been obsessed with for years."
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