Pearson
VC Fund
London, United Kingdom
Pearson is a VC fund in London focused on Education and EdTech. Pearson operates as a media and education company in the United Kingdom, other European countries, the United States, Canada, Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through North American Education, International Education, Professional, and FT Group segments. It provides its customers with a range of products and services such as curriculum textbooks and other learning materials; student assessments and testing services; and education technologies for educators and students from early education through elementary, middle and high school, and higher education. It also publishes educational materials in local languages; English language teaching materials for children and adults; and online learning products as well as offers testing, assessment, and qualification services. In addition, Pearson Education is involved in publishing, training, testing, and certification for professionals; publishes computer, information technology, and business titles; and offers electronic testing for regulatory and certification boards providing a suite of services from test development to test delivery and data management. It also offers a range of data, analysis, and services through various print, digital, and mobile channels to business people and financial institutions. The company publishes [The Financial Times](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/the-financial-times), an international daily business newspaper with five editions in the U.K., Continental Europe, the U.S., Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East; and operates FT.com which sells content and advertising online as well as publishes information about the retail, personal, and institutional finance industries. Pearson Education was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
- Total investments:
- 23
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 35%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Pearson invests in
Stages Pearson invests in
Countries Pearson invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
| See all 15 contacts → | |||
Round size
- Seed
- $210k–$5M
- Series A
- $2.7M–$11M
- Series B
- $11M–$27M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Education 11 (48%)
- EdTech 6 (26%)
- Software 5 (22%)
- Internet 4 (17%)
- E-Learning 4 (17%)
Stage
- Series A 5 (22%)
- Seed 3 (13%)
- Series B 3 (13%)
- Series D 3 (13%)
- Funding Round 3 (13%)
Country
- United States 11 (48%)
- India 3 (13%)
- United Kingdom 2 (9%)
- Canada 1 (4%)
- South Africa 1 (4%)
Team
| Name | Title | Investments | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Harish Manwani
Member of the Board of Directors
|
Member of the Board of Directors | Total investments: 0 | Find email | |
John Makinson
Finance Director
|
Finance Director | Total investments: 2 | Find email | |
Linda Lorimer
Member of the Board of Directors
|
Member of the Board of Directors | Total investments: 0 | Find email | |
Sidney Taurel
Chairman of the Board of Directors
|
Chairman of the Board of Directors | Total investments: 1 | Find email | |
Alexa Christon
Chief Marketing Officer
|
Chief Marketing Officer | Total investments: 0 | Find email | |
| See all 15 team members → | ||||
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cashmere enables publishers to liberate their premium content for usage in AI platforms by providing tools for monitoring and monetizing data in the agentic AI era. | $5M / Seed / Jan 22, 2026 | ||
| HowNow is a London-based EdTech startup that connects experts and learners by offering interactive video lessons. It is an online platform that gives everyone the opportunity to learn from experts all over the world. HowNow's live online video classes mean that teachers and students can interact with one another as if they were in the sameroom. The company has more than 400 experts teaching in 33 countries. | $4.4M / Series A / Feb 12, 2025 | ||
| Revolutionary talent assessment platform Plum is talent realized. Universally designed, Plum uses objective data to measure and match human potential to job needs, enhancing talent decisions across the employee lifecycle. With unmatched scalability, Plum empowers organizations to quantify job fit, improve quality of hire, identify potential,provide personalized career insights and create high-performing teams from one platform. Plum has been named a Top HR Product of the Year by Human Resource Executive, won an HR Tech Award from Lighthouse Research & Advisory and secured High Performer status with G2. Visit www.plum.io to learn more. | $5.9M / Convertible Note / Feb 21, 2023 | ||
| HowNow is a London-based EdTech startup that connects experts and learners by offering interactive video lessons. It is an online platform that gives everyone the opportunity to learn from experts all over the world. HowNow's live online video classes mean that teachers and students can interact with one another as if they were in the sameroom. The company has more than 400 experts teaching in 33 countries. | $4.8M / Series A / Feb 06, 2023 | ||
| Smashcut is an education technology and content company that has built a next-generation learning platform designed for video-centric, collaborative education. Smashcut partners with education brands to develop and deliver customized online programs. The company was founded in 2016 by Daniel Blackman, co-founder of Howcast and a former executive atGoogle, YouTube, and Barnes & Noble.com. | $7M / Series A / May 31, 2021 | ||
| Secondmind is on a mission to help automotive innovators design cleaner cars, and achieve greater sustainability through machine learning. Underpinned by years of award-winning, practical machine learning research and technology, developed by a world-class team of researchers, data scientists and machine learning engineers, Secondmind is helpingAutomotive manufacturers navigate the increasing complexity of engineering design in its transition to electrification. Secondmind was founded in 2016 and is backed by leading venture funds including Amadeus Capital, Atlantic Bridge, and Cambridge Innovation Capital, among others. | $27.2M / Series B / May 20, 2019 | ||
| Credly is helping the world speak a common language about people’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Thousands of employers, training organizations, associations, certification programs, and workforce development initiatives use Credly to help individuals translate their learning experiences into professional opportunities using trusted, portable,digital credentials. Credly empowers organizations to attract, engage, develop, and retain talent with enterprise-class tools that generate data-driven insights to address skills gaps and highlight opportunities through an unmatched global network of credential issuers. Unleash the workforce. | $11.1M / Series A / Apr 24, 2019 | ||
| Inkling is a single system that lets teams create great content, share it on any digital device, and measure how it's being used. It helps businesses succeed in today’s mobile world with data-driven content that can be accessed by any user, on any device, anywhere in the world. Inkling’s first-of-its-kind software prioritizes contentintelligence—enabling businesses to maximize their content’s value with real-time data insights. Based in San Francisco, Inkling is backed by Sequoia Capital, and partners with the world’s leading brands to enable their content for the digital space. | $15M / Series D / May 06, 2015 | ||
| Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a social entrepreneurship initiative by a group of young professionals who use entrepreneurship skills and innovation to bring about a revolution in the educational standards of schools in India. Sudiksha is a social laboratory that works towards designing, training and researching various facets ofeducation. | $210K / Seed / Jul 02, 2014 | ||
| The SPARK Schools model combines highly engaging classroom teaching, individual instruction in the Learning Lab, partnership with families and the community, and dedicated professional development for teachers and school leaders to facilitate student achievement. SPARK Schools students prepare for university and successful careers by excellingacademically, practicing creative thinking skills, and demonstrating core values that emphasize cooperative citizenship and love of learning. | $2.7M / Series A / May 20, 2014 | ||
| See all 23 investments → | |||
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FAQ
What does Pearson invest in?
Pearson invests primarily in Education, EdTech and Software startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 23 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Pearson invest in?
Pearson typically joins rounds of $210k–$5M at Seed, $2.7M–$11M at Series A and $11M–$27M at Series B. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Pearson's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Pearson took part in.
How do I contact Pearson?
Public channels for Pearson include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
Who are the partners at Pearson?
The team at Pearson includes Harish Manwani (Member of the Board of Directors), John Makinson (Finance Director) and Linda Lorimer (Member of the Board of Directors), among 15 team members tracked by Shizune. The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Nov 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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