Aceable, an Austin, TX, startup with a driver’s education app for teens and other soon-to-be drivers, has raised an additional $3 million in seed funding.
The investment, which was led by Austin venture capital firm Silverton Partners, brings the startup’s total funding to $4.7 million and will be used to expand its offerings to other states beyond Texas and Florida. Other investors include Floodgate Ventures, NextGen Angels, and Capital Factory.
Aceable is, understandably, concentrating on getting its courses in the “largest driving states,” says Blake Garrett, founder and CEO. He told me on Wednesday that the startup had just gotten approval to offer its classes to California residents.
Founded in 2013, Aceable offers mobile-app based classes in driver’s ed and defensive driving. The idea is making the often boring required classes more like video games with leader boards and other features that make engaging in the coursework more fun. Aceable says its products are catching on: In the last 15 months, the startup has added 20 employees and grown to 100,000 users, the company says.
Aceable prices its classes similar to those found in more traditional settings: about $99 for driver’s ed and $30 for defensive driving.
Eventually, Garrett says he would like to expand the curriculum into worker safety and mandatory continuing education, such as for real estate agents and other licensed professionals.
For now, Garrett says Aceable’s management has learned a lot about navigating state transportation and education bureaucracies to get approvals. “Each state has some nuance about it,” he says.
California, for example, requires that companies have an office within the state. “Even for a 100 percent online company,” he says.
