Will Compete for $1 Million in Prizes in World’s Largest Pitch Competition for EdTech Startups – Copenhagen, Denmark (Jan 19, 2022)
Peaqs has been selected to The Elite 200, the acclaimed list of semifinalists in The GSV Cup — the world’s largest pitch competition for EdTech startups run by female-led, multi-stage venture capital firm GSV Ventures. Companies selected to The Elite 200 represent the top pre-seed and seed stage startups in digital learning across the “Pre-K to Gray” space. Peaqs will now compete for up to $1M in cash and prizes in San Diego this April at the ASU+GSV Summit, the annual education technology event hosted by Arizona State University and GSV Ventures.
Peaqs was selected from a global applicant pool of 750+ companies, the largest application pool for the GSV Cup yet. More than 175 judges from leading venture capital firms and strategic partners in digital learning like Accel, General Atlantic, Reach Capital, and Owl Ventures, among others, used rigorous criteria to determine the 200 most promising companies.
‘Being among the 200 most interesting EdTech startups in the world, in the eyes of this panel of judges – who represent this kind of venture capital and expertise – is truly an honor and encouraging for our continued development. We are really proud that they see the same growth potential in Peaqs and to get this kind of vote of confidence in our mission to train the entrepreneurial mind and accelerate the pace of innovation is truly amazing.’ – Marie Hoepfner, Co-founder at Peaqs.
“We’re at a critical and exciting time for the future of society,” said Deborah Quazzo, managing partner of GSV Ventures.
‘The pandemic has made it increasingly clear that Ed is on The Edge — on the edge of innovation, transformation, globalization. We’ve always imagined a new era in which ALL people have equal access to the future, and this year’s Elite 200 companies are emblematic of that vision. We’re proud to name the 200 semifinalists in the GSV Cup competition and look forward to having them pitch live at the ASU+GSV Summit.’
The Elite 200 companies serve learners from Pre-K to Gray, with companies well-distributed across the following categories: Early Childhood, K-12, Higher Education, Adult Consumer Learning, and Adult Enterprise Learning. The 2022 Elite 200 continue to break barriers, comprised of an increasingly diverse and global group: 58% of companies have female founders 51% of companies have founders that identify as people of color 44% of companies are based outside the United StatesThe GSV Cup is powered by Google Cloud, HubSpot for Startups, HolonIQ, and GSV Ventures.See Peaqs and the rest of the companies selected to the GSV Cup Elite 200 here.
About Peaqs
Peaqs is an edtech with a mission to train the entrepreneurial mind and accelerate innovation. We do this by training the entrepreneurial mindset and by building test-beds for new solutions.Peaqs is a system that lets students move their business ideas over 4 phases arriving at a business plan in the end. While doing so, they get feedback from peers, mentors and investors who chip in with valuable commentary and a gamified valuation via the stock market engine.Peaqs is not only a system designed for better learning outcomes but also a platform that facilitates private sector/educational institution exchanges for corporate talent acquisition and early stage seed investment in new ventures.Peaqs was launched in 2018 and has since then seen adoption at 17 institutions in 10 countries across Europe and in the US. We are live in international pitch competitions and all academic levels from high school and up, incl. MBA and Exec-Education. Peaqs boasts a small but highly diverse team and embraces a multi-ethnic and distributed organization.
About GSV Ventures
GSV Ventures is a female-led, multi-stage venture capital firm focused on the $7+ trillion education sector. The fund is currently investing out of GSV Ventures Fund III and backs innovative entrepreneurs around the world in the “Pre-K to Gray” Arc of Learning. GSV manages over $675 million in global EdTech investments. Portfolio holdings include Andela, Class Technologies, ClassDojo, Coursera, Course Hero, Degreed, Guild, MasterClass, Outlier, Photomath, Quizizz, Lead School, Brightchamps, and ClassPlus, among others.