An education company spun out from University of Birmingham has secured funding to help it target new markets in North America.
Graide, which was founded in 2021 by former students Robert Stanyon, Manjinder Kainth and George Bartlett, has created an AI-based platform aimed at helping teachers mark homework.
It has now agreed a finance package worth £1.65 million to support its expansion in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and target new markets in the US and Canada.
Graide uses assistive AI and machine learning to help teachers grade essays and provide feedback to students.
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Initially designed for marking maths, physics and chemistry papers, the company has since launched a new platform that can mark essays and reports in all subjects. The firm is also working on a new feature to detect students using AI to write essays.
Graide evaluates both the structure and quality of submissions, can mark more than one question at a time and is 'self-aware', thereby only showing marks it is confident about and alerting teachers to work which requires human scrutiny.
The company, which is based in Wolverhampton and employs eight staff, said studies showed it could reduce marking time between four and sevenfold and save more than £400,000 of staff costs annually.
The platform counts exam boards and universities in Birmingham, Durham, Huddersfield and Sussex among its clients and it has already carried out successful pilot projects in the US.
The £1.65 million in new capital comes from XTX Ventures alongside existing investors Mercia Ventures, Midlands Engine Investment Fund, SFC Capital and private backers.
The latest round brings the total it has raised to date to more than £2.5 million and will enable it to target new markets, further enhance its platform and create four new jobs over the next six months.
Mr Kainth said: "Graide provides transparent, explainable AI, a requirement in today's world, and can cover all subjects taught from school to university level, saving teacher time."
XTX Ventures is the venture capital arm of trading company XTX Markets.
Global head of treasury Oliver Scott added: "We are delighted to have invested in Graide and we look forward to supporting the wonderful team there as they continue to expand in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and across the US and Canada."
