Adeel Khan in front of a screenshot of the Magic School app (BusinessDen illustration)
Nobody goes into teaching for the money. Don’t tell that to Adeel Khan.
His Denver-based company Magic School, which makes an artificial intelligence-powered teacher’s assistant, just raised a $45 million round led by Chicago’s Valor Equity Partners — the first institutional investor in Tesla.
“It’s in the pantheon of K-12 products, like the Kahoots of the world,” Khan said, comparing Magic School to the popular game-based learning app.
Denver’s Range Ventures, led by Chris Erickson and Adam Burrows, also participated.
This is Magic School’s third raise since the educator’s copilot launched in 2023. Bain Capital Ventures in San Francisco led a $15 million round last summer, and Range led a $2.4 round in August 2023.
Magic School uses AI to help with simple but tedious tasks like generating rubrics or slideshows for class. Everyone who added to the most recent raise was a repeat investor, Khan said.
“It’s rare for a company to go from inception to the scale that they’ve reached in less than a year and a half,” Range’s Burrows said. “From what we understand, it’s the fastest growing K-12 tech company of all time.”
Magic School has also shifted its office.
The company moved on Tuesday into 2,600 square feet on the first floor of Mainspring’s Sudler building at 1576 Sherman St. in Uptown, Khan said. Magic School has 85 employees, but many work remotely.
Khan said he hopes to expand his staff by 50 percent in the next year, so he only signed a one-year lease. Magic School previously worked from Green Spaces coworking in Rino.
“We have a lot ahead of us,” he said. “We’re in that sprint mode of scale.”
The entrace to the Sudler building at 1576 N. Sherman St. in Denver. (BusinessDen file)
The former principal and teacher at Denver’s Conservatory Green High School founded Magic School in early 2023 to combat teacher burnout.
“Every district could have more resources and needs support, and student needs are growing,” he said. “AI maybe can’t provide all the answers in school, but it can make a pretty good dent.”
Since the software first became available in 2023, Magic School has grown to 4.5 million users. Khan said at least one teacher in every U.S. school district uses it and that it also benefits students.
Aurora Public Schools started using Magic School in fall 2023 and saw a 28 percent improvement in students reaching grade level reading expectations, according to the company.
“It’s more likely that an educator has used and/or heard of Magic school than not,” he said. “That’s a pretty awesome thing to do in a year and a half.”
When the company launched, it offered seven or eight features. Today, it has more than 70. There’s a free version, a nearly $100-per-year version and a district or school-wide package that costs roughly $5 per student.
The company recently announced several new features to make Magic School more customizable. It also added a “lab” where teachers can go to test out unreleased features.
Khan’s team is also working on amping up its data analysis to provide more targeted feedback. He said finding common problems among student essays and suggesting improvements is just one example of what he hopes to do.
“School is probably going to look a lot different in the next decade, and we wanna be at the forefront of that change,” he said.
Khan said Magic School’s eight-figure revenue should double this year.
“We’re cash flow positive and have every dollar we raised in the bag,” he said.
Adeel Khan in front of a screenshot of the Magic School app (BusinessDen illustration)
Nobody goes into teaching for the money. Don’t tell that to Adeel Khan.
His Denver-based company Magic School, which makes an artificial intelligence-powered teacher’s assistant, just raised a $45 million round led by Chicago’s Valor Equity Partners — the first institutional investor in Tesla.
“It’s in the pantheon of K-12 products, like the Kahoots of the world,” Khan said, comparing Magic School to the popular game-based learning app.
Denver’s Range Ventures, led by Chris Erickson and Adam Burrows, also participated.
This is Magic School’s third raise since the educator’s copilot launched in 2023. Bain Capital Ventures in San Francisco led a $15 million round last summer, and Range led a $2.4 round in August 2023.
Magic School uses AI to help with simple but tedious tasks like generating rubrics or slideshows for class. Everyone who added to the most recent raise was a repeat investor, Khan said.
“It’s rare for a company to go from inception to the scale that they’ve reached in less than a year and a half,” Range’s Burrows said. “From what we understand, it’s the fastest growing K-12 tech company of all time.”
Magic School has also shifted its office.
The company moved on Tuesday into 2,600 square feet on the first floor of Mainspring’s Sudler building at 1576 Sherman St. in Uptown, Khan said. Magic School has 85 employees, but many work remotely.
Khan said he hopes to expand his staff by 50 percent in the next year, so he only signed a one-year lease. Magic School previously worked from Green Spaces coworking in Rino.
“We have a lot ahead of us,” he said. “We’re in that sprint mode of scale.”
The entrace to the Sudler building at 1576 N. Sherman St. in Denver. (BusinessDen file)
The former principal and teacher at Denver’s Conservatory Green High School founded Magic School in early 2023 to combat teacher burnout.
“Every district could have more resources and needs support, and student needs are growing,” he said. “AI maybe can’t provide all the answers in school, but it can make a pretty good dent.”
Since the software first became available in 2023, Magic School has grown to 4.5 million users. Khan said at least one teacher in every U.S. school district uses it and that it also benefits students.
Aurora Public Schools started using Magic School in fall 2023 and saw a 28 percent improvement in students reaching grade level reading expectations, according to the company.
“It’s more likely that an educator has used and/or heard of Magic school than not,” he said. “That’s a pretty awesome thing to do in a year and a half.”
When the company launched, it offered seven or eight features. Today, it has more than 70. There’s a free version, a nearly $100-per-year version and a district or school-wide package that costs roughly $5 per student.
The company recently announced several new features to make Magic School more customizable. It also added a “lab” where teachers can go to test out unreleased features.
Khan’s team is also working on amping up its data analysis to provide more targeted feedback. He said finding common problems among student essays and suggesting improvements is just one example of what he hopes to do.
“School is probably going to look a lot different in the next decade, and we wanna be at the forefront of that change,” he said.
Khan said Magic School’s eight-figure revenue should double this year.
“We’re cash flow positive and have every dollar we raised in the bag,” he said.
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