Spanish EdTech startup Masterplace raises $2 million seed round to launch AI-powered educational platform

The online education sector has experienced explosive growth in recent years, particularly since the pandemic, driven by an ever-increasing number of content creators across various platforms, from YouTube and TikTok to professionals offering bespoke courses.

Riding this wave, Barcelona-based EdTech startup Masterplace is emerging as a key player, providing tools for tutors to create, deliver, and monetize comprehensive courses using artificial intelligence (AI), even if it’s their first foray into teaching. Students benefit from a wide array of courses adaptable to their contexts, leveraging Web3 technology to safeguard the intellectual property rights of both course creators and learners.

Today, Masterplace announced it has raised a $2 million seed round to launch its AI-powered educational platform aimed at promoting education for societal benefit. The funding round saw participation from a group of business angels and Masterplace’s founder, Ilya Rouss.

With this fresh capital, Masterplace intends to build a platform ideal for aspiring educators without prior experience, as well as for students without formal qualifications who are seeking to upskill or pivot their careers.

The Masterplace platform offers premium content for students and empowers mentors to effortlessly create courses and content while simplifying student tracking and evaluation. The Masterplace app is now available on both the Apple Store and Google Store.

Founded by a team of seasoned business and educational professionals, including serial entrepreneur Ilya Rouss—who brings 15 years of experience in technological projects and marketing, having managed campaigns and pro-athlete sponsorships for brands like Eurasian Bank, Red Bull, and Yamaha—Masterplace is well-positioned to make a significant impact in the EdTech space.

Creating and building a course can be a daunting task, but Masterplace alleviates this burden with an AI-generated co-pilot avatar. This virtual assistant helps structure and create course content and assists students in navigating the material based on their individual needs and contexts. By offering top-quality content and robust support for both educators and learners, Masterplace aims to maximize knowledge transfer.

All educational content generated on Masterplace is anchored on a blockchain, ensuring the intellectual property rights of both teachers and students are protected. This unique non-fungible record aims to establish Masterplace’s sessions and content as recognized bibliographic references for future academic work.

Masterplace Courses

The growth in distance education shows no signs of slowing down, with the global market for online education platforms projected to reach 112.3 million users by 2029. In Europe alone, the sector is expected to reach a valuation of $4.7 billion by that time.

“Masterplace was born in response to the needs of content creators,” said Ilya Rouss in a statement. “We noticed that only 10% of online course enrollees actually complete them. Thus, we decided to create a structure that not only helps content creators save time and effort in course development but also provides incentives for users to successfully complete the courses they purchase.”

As Masterplace forges ahead, its AI-powered platform and blockchain integration position it as a transformative force in the rapidly evolving landscape of online education.