# Pearson

> Pearson is a VC fund in London backing Education and EdTech. See 23 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, United Kingdom
- Total investments: 23
- Last investment: Jan 2026
- Lead investor: 35%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/pearson
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/pearson
- Website: http://www.pearson.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pearsonplc

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 ascurriculum 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 Pearson Education was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Pearson. Shizune tracks 15 team members at Pearson. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/pearson?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $210k–$5M |
| Series A | $2.7M–$11M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Education | 11 | 48% |
| EdTech | 6 | 26% |
| Software | 5 | 22% |
| Internet | 4 | 17% |
| E-Learning | 4 | 17% |

38 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 5 | 22% |
| Funding Round | 4 | 17% |
| Seed | 3 | 13% |
| Series B | 3 | 13% |
| Series D | 3 | 13% |

8 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 11 | 48% |
| India | 3 | 13% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 9% |
| Canada | 1 | 4% |
| South Africa | 1 | 4% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Harish Manwani | Member of the Board of Directors | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/harish-manwani |
| John Makinson | Finance Director | 2 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-makinson |
| Linda Lorimer | Member of the Board of Directors | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/linda-lorimer |
| Sidney Taurel | Chairman of the Board of Directors | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sidney-taurel |
| Alexa Christon | Chief Marketing Officer | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alexa-christon |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cashmere | 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 | https://cashmere.io |
| HowNow | 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 | https://learnhownow.com/ |
| Plum.io | 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 | http://plum.io |
| HowNow | 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 | https://learnhownow.com/ |
| Smashcut | 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 | https://www.smashcut.com |
| Secondmind | 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 | https://www.secondmind.ai |
| Credly | 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 | https://info.credly.com |
| Inkling Systems | 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 | http://www.inkling.com |
| Sudiksha | 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 | http://sudiksha.in |
| SPARK Schools | 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 | http://www.sparkschools.co.za |

10 of 23 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Felicis](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/felicis-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Kapor Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kapor-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [McGraw-Hill Education](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mcgraw-hill-education) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Sequoia Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sequoia-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Sherpalo Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sherpalo-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Strada Education Network](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/strada-education-network) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [Reach Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/reach-capital) — VC Fund
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [GSV Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gsv-acceleration) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Launch Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/launch-africa) — VC Fund
- [Knife Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/knife-capital) — VC Fund
- [4Di Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/4di-capital) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Film Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/film-investors-united-states)
- [Education Investors in South Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/education-investors-south-africa)
- [EdTech Investors in South Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/edtech-investors-south-africa)
- [Education VC Funds in South Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/education-vc-funds-south-africa)
- [EdTech VC Funds in South Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/edtech-vc-funds-south-africa)
- [Education VC Funds in Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/education-vc-funds-africa)

## FAQ

### What does Pearson invest in?

Pearson invests primarily in Education, EdTech and Software startups, most often at Series A and Funding Round 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 is Pearson's check size?

Pearson typically joins rounds of $210k–$5M at Seed and $2.7M–$11M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Pearson participates 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 Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co