BenchPrep

BenchPrep

Formerly	Watermelon Express
Industry	Education
Founded	2009;16 years ago (2009)
Founder	Ashish Rangnekar [1] [2] Ujjwal Gupta [3] [4]
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Website	benchprep.com

BenchPrep is an American company that provides cloud-based study guides for standardized tests, professional certifications, and K-12 classroom learning. It has partnered with educational publishers such as McGraw Hill, John Wiley & Sons, and the Princeton Review to create interactive, digitized courses. ^{[5] [6]}

History

BenchPrep, formerly known as Watermelon Express, was founded in 2009 by Ashish Rangnekar and Ujjwal Gupta, ^[7] after Ashish Rangnekar won the New Venture Challenge at the University of Chicago. ^{[8] [9]} Shortly thereafter, BenchPrep received $2.2 million in seed funding from Lightbank, the executives behind Groupon. ^[10] In July 2012, the company announced a $6 million round of funding from New Enterprise Associates and Revolution LLC. ^{[11] [12]}

In 2019, the company announced a $20 million round of funding from Jump Capital and Owl Ventures. ^{[13] [14]}

References

1. "How BenchPrep went from side hustle to fast-growing e-learning company". Built In Chicago. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
2. "How Angry Birds & Farmville can help students score better". The Economic Times. 2012-05-28. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
3. "How BenchPrep went from side hustle to fast-growing e-learning company". Built In Chicago. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
4. "How Angry Birds & Farmville can help students score better". The Economic Times. 2012-05-28. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
5. Josh Constine (2010-01-05). "BenchPrep is Code Academy for any Subject". Techcrunch.
6. Rip Empson (2012-05-14). "BenchPrep Teams up with The Princeton Review to Gamify Test Prep". Techcrunch.
7. Steve Hendershot (2012-07-03). "BenchPrep Snares 6 Million Investment". Chicago Business.
8. Brad Spirrison (2011-09-23). "Local App Developers Rise to the Head of the Class". NBC Chicago.
9. "Traditional NVC Winners". 2010.
10. Steve Hendershot (2012-11-12). "BenchPrep Leaving Textbooks in the Dust". Chicago Business.
11. "The Daily Start-Up NEA Revolution Back BenchPrep for Online Education". Online.wsj.com. 2012-07-03.
12. Lora Kolodny (2012-07-03). "BenchPrep Passes Series B Test, Raises $6M". Dow Jones & Company.
13. BenchPrep (2019-01-15). "BenchPrep Closes $20 Million Series C Round of Funding Co-Led by Jump Capital and Owl Ventures". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
14. "BenchPrep raises $20M Series C to double headcount, boost product development". Built In Chicago. Retrieved 2019-03-26.