Alpaca Closes $1.8M Seed Round!
Team Letter - Special Edition | April 3, 2025
Today, I get to share some big news with all of you: Alpaca recently closed a $1.8 million seed round to fuel the growth of our platform and expand our mission of supporting the well-being of educators. 🎉
This moment is so much more than a funding milestone— and to be clear, it’s not a finish line. It’s the start of some BIG work ahead. It’s work that I wake up energized to do alongside each of you, every single day.
Our Investors
Our round was led by an amazing group of education-focused investors who believe deeply in the future we’re building together: Nelnet, Workshop Ventures, Invest Nebraska, Lozier Foundation, and many more extraordinary angel investors.
One of the most exciting things about the investors in this round is that they come from such diverse perspectives. From Nelnet, a corporate strategic investor, to Lozier Foundation, a philanthropic investor, to Invest Nebraska, a statewide economic development initiative, to Workshop Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on education technology. Each brings expertise to our company that is unique. And what’s more exciting — the profession of education is something each of these partners cares about deeply. That’s GREAT news for education.
Where We Came From, Where We’re Going
When we started Alpaca, we had one simple goal: make it easy to support teachers. We began with care packages that brought moments of joy and appreciation. But quickly, we learned that celebrating educators is wonderful, but understanding educators is our future.
We learned quickly that the options out there for educators to make their voices heard didn’t always hit the mark — the platforms that help schools and districts get feedback from educators often run just once or twice a year, without clear ways for school leaders to respond or act in support of their teams.
So, we listened to teachers and built something to respond to that need. Today, Alpaca is a research-backed platform that helps school leaders listen with intention, respond with care, and act with impact. We deliver real-time feedback, qualitative well-being data, and aligned resources—paired with our signature care packages—to help districts support their educators in meaningful ways.
In the past year alone, we’ve grown from a handful of pilot customers to supporting more than 8,000 educators across 25 states. That growth happened because school leaders are ready for tools that are grounded in action—and because of the incredible work each of you is doing every day to build and share Alpaca.
One of our customers recently told us,
“It is one of the best tools that I've had the ability to use to have an immediate and direct impact on staff and students.”
That’s the impact we’re here for. That’s the future we’re building.
This seed round is the start of something big. It’s time now to leverage what we’ve learned and grow our team and scale the platform to more schools and districts across the country.
We’re just getting started. And now the real work starts. Let’s GO!
KB