Founder-Leader: Mark Angel, Co-founder of Amira and CEO
Venture Name: Amira Learning
Venture Description: Amira Learning is an innovative educational technology venture-funded start-up dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for young learners. The company offers a personalized intelligent reading assistant that utilizes artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology to assess students’ reading abilities and provide tailored instruction and feedback in real-time, helping them develop essential literacy skills and improve reading fluency. The value of Amira lies in its ability to provide educators with actionable insights and data-driven recommendations to support personalized instruction and accelerate student learning, ultimately closing the literacy gap and fostering a lifelong love of reading.
Founder-Leader Bio: Mark Angel is the CEO and Co-founder of Amira Learning. Prior to Amira, he served as Chief Technology Officer at Renaissance Learning. There, he led the R&D department and worked on Accelerated Reader and STAR, two of the most successful reading apps in the US. He is also the founder of two start-ups: Papyrus Technology, which was an early Wall Street trading technology company (later purchased by Ernst & Young); and Knova, a pioneer venture on contact center technology (later became publicly traded, and was purchased by a leading PE firm). He has worked for 30 years as a CEO, CTO and manager for innovators in the area of AI and Natural Language Processing in the Silicon Valley, and is the chief inventor on more than 10 natural language processing patents. The board members for Amira are Amit Patel and Katie Jansen, both have very experienced backgrounds in education and tech. Furthermore, the team of advisors for the company are directors and instructors from credible institutions, with an extensive background and research in the area of literacy, education and language acquisition.
Personal Reflections: I was interested in this venture because I enjoy reading, but I know this is a big challenge for many children. For children to gradually improve on reading, it often involves lots of parental support, but that can often be challenging. Furthermore, I was always interested in apps that can make learning fun, and give children and young learners immediate feedback to boost their motivation and knowledge acquisition. This company inspired my potential to venture in the area of gamification learning and learning apps.
Hi Jennie,
I also like reading and it’s certainly a challenge for a lot of children. With advances in technology, it’s great to see a company which focuses on literacy outcomes for young learners. The founder has an impressive career in business. One fact that stood out to me was the fact they were able to secure 10 natural language processing patents. It’s also great to see that EdTech companies can be big enough to be a publicly traded company. Usually when we think of publicly traded companies in terms of tech, it always has to be the companies that produce hardware that consumers can use like computers and phones.
Thanks, Jennie! It definitely sounds like Angel is a great example of an entrepreneur committed to assisting literacy outcomes for young learners through innovative technology. The programs reading assistant is impressive in that it offers real time personalized instruction to improve reading abilities. Angel’s experience demonstrates his knowledge in developing successful reading apps ad s he brings a wealth of expertise to Amira Learning. The company’s focus on helping educators assess their students and close the literacy gap reflects a dedication to education and developing well rounded learners. I would agree with you that ones love for reading would lead you to this application but on a personal level, I would love to use an app like this to add to my reading assessments with my students as an added supplement. I think that Mark Angel stands out as a good example of someone who is combining technological innovation with a commitment to improving education for young learners.