CHALKIE, AI-POWERED LESSON PLAN BUILDER FOR TEACHERS, CLOSES $4M FUNDING ROUND

NEW YORK, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Chalkie, an AI-powered, innovative education technology platform built to support teachers with curriculum-aligned lessons, has just announced the closure of a massive $4M funding round from TriplePoint Ventures.

Used by more than 500,000 teachers worldwide and serving over 10 million students globally, Chalkie was designed to give educators powerful tools to save time and combat burnout. Chalkie allows teachers to enter a topic, select their curriculum, and guide the AI to generate engaging lesson plans in seconds. Each lesson includes professionally designed teaching materials and differentiated activity sheets tailored for students of varying abilities.

Before launching Chalkie, CEO and co-founder Phillip Daneshyar built and scaled multiple ventures backed by Y Combinator and appeared on Dragon's Den. His previous company, Kanda, brokered more than $100 million in loans for UK home improvement businesses, helping over 10,000 tradespeople expand their companies.

Phillip is joined by CTO and co-founder Mark Hughes, who previously founded Tutorful, one of the UK's largest tutoring marketplaces. At its peak, Tutorful employed more than 80 people and raised over $10 million, establishing Hughes as a prominent innovator in the edtech sector.

Completing the founding team is CPO and co-founder Peter Sanderson, a classically trained architect turned product designer who previously served as Head of Design at Tutorful. Sanderson works closely with educators to translate their everyday classroom challenges into intuitive features designed to reduce workload and fight teacher burnout.

Since launching in 2025, Chalkie has seen rapid global adoption as schools and teachers increasingly turn to AI-powered tools to streamline preparation and improve classroom engagement. Teachers face enormous pressure and limited time. This past month, Chalkie ran a survey in which teachers reported that Chalkie saves them an average of 5 hours a week, with 90% strongly agreeing that Chalkie contributes to their long-term professional well-being.

Chalkie offers three flexible plans designed to support educators at every stage:

• Forever Free Plan – Five free lesson resources or activity sheets per week, every week, forever.
• Pro Plan ($80/year) – Up to 200 resources per month, including alignment with any national curriculum.
• Max Plan (Varies) – Up to 400 resources per month, with advanced features including custom presentation themes and enhanced customization.

By building tools that genuinely understand their workflow, Chalkie can remove friction from lesson preparation and give them back valuable hours each week.

For more information, visit Chalkie at chalkie.ai.

SOURCE Chalkie AI