Grockit Raises Cash, Prepares “Massive Multiplayer Online Learning” Product.r

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

When we last wrote about San Francisco based Grockit, in late 2006, they were unfunded. Their business idea of holding low-cost GMAT prep courses over Webex was just getting off the ground.

Now they are funded - $2.7 million total ($2.3 million from Benchmark, $400k from angel investors Mark Pincus, Rob Lord, Reid Hoffman Thomas Ryan and others) in a Series A round was closed last month. And they are changing their model completely.

Instead of holding one-to-many classes via Webex, the company is building a new product from the ground up. Founder Farbood Nivi calls it MMOL, for Massive Multiplayer Online Learning (a play on the term MMOG). He says studies show that people learn best from eachother, not in a teacher-students situation. He, along with technical co-founder Michael Buffington (Price.com, MeasureMap, Stikkit), are going to try to prove this works. Beyond that, they aren't divulging any details at all.