ImpactAlpha, January 11— New York-based Parallel Learning partners with psychologists, speech-language pathologists, clinical social workers and special education teachers to serve more than 80 school districts in a dozen US states.
Nearly all states face a shortage of special education teachers and other providers, according to the US Department of Education.
“I lived firsthand through a number of the same services that we are now providing to students and can personally speak to how impactful the extra support can be,” said Parallel’s Diana Helfonds, who was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at seven years old.
Gender lens
Parallel has completed its $20 million Series A round with $6.1 million from Rethink Impact, a women-led venture capital fund that supports women founders.
“Our firm spent years looking at solutions in special education and were incredibly impressed by not only the quality of what Diana and her team have built but by the fact they have so quickly scaled to 80+ districts,” said Rethink Impact’s Jenny Abramson.
