Club Penguin founder Lane Merrifeld sold his kid-safe, massively multiplayer online gaming community to Walt Disney Co.DIS -0.88% in 2007 in what amounted to a $350 million deal.
But he never gave up on the idea that kids should be able to safely use the best of today’s technologies in their daily lives.
In 2012, he left Disney to co-found an education tech venture called FreshGrade Inc.–with Steve Wandler and Mark Payne–that connects teachers, school administrators, students and their parents or guardians as easily as a social network or work-collaboration tool like Yammer or Slack.
Now FreshGrade has raised $4.3 million in seed funding, Mr. Merrifeld told Venture Capital Dispatch, to bring its learning-assessment and communication apps to K-12 schools far and wide.
Investors in FreshGrade’s “super” seed round included NewSchools Venture Fund,Emerson Collective, Accel Partners and the Social + Capital Partnership, Mr. Merrifeld said.