Teacher's Buddy, an education technology company based in Australia, has raised AUD $1.85 million in seed funding. The capital is earmarked for product development and expansion into key international markets, with a particular focus on reducing teacher burnout by alleviating administrative workloads.
Investment details
The latest funding round was led by Giant Leap, with Flying Fox Ventures, Co Ventures, Exhort Ventures, Saniel Ventures and Soul Capital also participating. The company plans to use the new capital to expand its engineering and product teams, accelerate its product roadmap, and scale its go-to-market operations across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. The founders aim to increase the number of teachers using the platform to over 30,000 and form partnerships with more than 200 schools within the next year.
Platform impact
Teacher's Buddy provides a platform that combines administrative workflow management, teacher development support, and data-driven tools to help educators track and improve student outcomes. Within months of launch, over 12,000 teachers in 130 countries have signed up for the platform, and it has already been adopted by 15 school partners, including Orbost P-12 Community College and Point Cook Senior College in Australia, and Kaipara College in New Zealand.
The company reports that teachers using the platform saved on average 12 days per term. This includes a reduction of 32 hours on planning tasks, 38 hours on marking, 16 hours on report writing, 9 hours on lesson enhancements, and 7 hours on meeting planning.
Founders' background
Teacher's Buddy was founded by Ben Sze and Matt Abraham in 2024. Sze previously co-founded Edrolo, an established Australian edtech platform. Abraham brings over two decades of digital product and advertising experience, as well as a decade on school boards, providing insight into the challenges facing educators.
"Teachers are working more than 50 hours a week, with up to a third of that time lost to planning and admin. Teacher's Buddy aims to reverse these trends by delivering an all-in-one, AI-enhanced workspace designed to lighten the load, foster growth, and unlock every student's potential," said Ben Sze, Co-Founder, Teacher's Buddy.
Addressing burnout
The announcement comes as concerns grow regarding teacher workloads and wellbeing. Recent data highlights that in Australia, lesson planning and paperwork take up six to nine hours of teachers' working week, with many reporting high levels of stress. Internationally, up to 75% of teachers say they have experienced burnout linked to administrative demands. High rates of depression, anxiety, and stress have been recorded among teachers, outpacing national averages.
Adam Milgrom, Partner at Giant Leap, said: "Teacher's Buddy is addressing one of the most under-recognised levers for improving student outcomes: supporting teacher capacity. When teachers are overwhelmed by administrative demands, their ability to focus on students suffers. By applying AI to reduce workload and streamline planning, Ben and Matt are not only improving teacher wellbeing but also enhancing learning outcomes. The rapid adoption of Teacher's Buddy reflects the urgency of this challenge and the global relevance of their solution."
Maxine Minter, General Partner at Co Ventures, said: "As early-stage investors, we've long seen education as one of those white whales - an industry everyone knows is broken, but one that's been tough to fix because traditional software just wasn't built for the realities of the classroom. With AI now in our toolkit, we finally have a chance to test those old assumptions and reimagine what it means to support teachers and educate the next generation.
"What makes this moment special is the team. It's rare, especially in Australia, to find founders who've lived this problem and already built successfully in the same space. This inflection point in technology gives us the chance to back Ben and Matt as they take another run at a challenge they've been obsessed with for years," said Minter.
Rachael Neumann, Partner at Flying Fox Ventures, said: "At Flying Fox Ventures, we back founders taking on problems that matter to humanity at scale. Teacher's Buddy is tackling one of the world's most urgent and underfunded leverage points: giving teachers their time and energy back. When educators thrive, entire generations do."
