Firefly Learning, an ‘Edtech’ business dreamt up by two London school boys to help them revise for exams, has secured a series A fundraising of £4.5 million from BGF Ventures and Beringea.

Schools use Firefly to save their teachers time, let students learn in ways that work best for them, and engage parents in their child’s school journey.

The online tool, which can be used by teachers, students and parents, can set homework, create resources, and track progress.

Firefly was built specifically for schools, rather than adapting a model designed for businesses or universities, and can integrate easily with the software they already use, its founders claim.

The service is now used by 480 schools in 32 countries, covering some 400,000 pupils.

Internationally, Firefly will invest to expand its Australian operations and growth in other countries.

Simon Haye, co-founder of the company said: “There are three quarters of a billion school-age children around the world, but education is one of those industries that hasn’t really changed at all in the way that lessons are taught and homework is handed out. Teachers, parents and pupils are heavily reliant on pieces of paper and it can be hard for parents to monitor what a student is doing.

“Firefly Learning has developed a way to connect students, teachers and pupils so that they can collaborate even when they are not face to face, so that resources can be made available easily and curated properly and so that teachers can set and mark tasks quickly and easily, while allowing parents greater participation, which has been shown to improve results overall.”

The money raised will be used to develop the Firefly product through research and development and expand the sales and marketing team.

Firefly currently has 50 staff in offices in Hammersmith and in Sydney and the company expects the next stage of growth will see the business double in size.

Simon Calver, founding partner at BGF Ventures, said: “There are lots of apps and platforms for schools out there but Firefly has created a complete platform that integrates reminders, messaging, homework setting activities and learning resources.”