Amira Learning
Headquarters
Menlo Park, CAFounded
2018CEO / Founder
Mark AngelEmployees
51-200Funding
Series C — $40.3MProducts
1 product listedAvg. AI Score
7.3/10Website
amiralearning.com/
Profile updated
About Amira Learning
Amira Learning was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The company develops artificial intelligence software that listens to children read aloud, assesses their literacy skills, and provides tutoring support to help improve reading fluency and comprehension.
The company's core product uses speech recognition and machine learning models trained on children's oral reading data to generate real-time diagnostic assessments and personalized tutoring interventions. Amira's software is used by school districts across the United States as a supplement to classroom reading instruction, targeting students from PreKindergarten through eighth grade.
Amira Learning has raised funding from investors including Owl Ventures and other venture capital firms across multiple rounds. The company grew out of research originally conducted at Carnegie Mellon University related to automated reading tutoring technology.
Specialties
Financials
Dated, source-cited figures. Estimates are marked.
Products by Amira Learning
All products by Amira Learning reviewed by our AI panel of experts.
Competitive Landscape
Who Amira Learning competes with, and how they differ.
The closest functional match to Amira's core product: an automated oral-reading-fluency and dyslexia screener for K-5 that scores students' recorded reading with speech recognition, launched by NWEA in 2018 and sold to the same district and state assessment buyers. It is an assessment product rather than a tutor — it screens and progress-monitors but does not deliver Amira's 1:1 AI reading coaching — and since HMH completed its acquisition of NWEA in May 2023 it sits inside the same publisher that distributes Amira in U.S. schools.
Khan Academy's Khanmigo puts an AI tutor into K-12 classrooms across every subject and is priced at or near free for districts through philanthropic funding, whereas Amira is a paid, literacy-only product whose differentiator is speech recognition of students reading aloud and state-approved screening. They compete for the same district AI-tutoring mandate and teacher attention, not for the same assessment contracts.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Tutor.com sells district- and library-funded on-demand tutoring, including reading support, delivered by human tutors on a per-session basis — the same high-dosage tutoring budgets (state tutoring funds such as Louisiana's ACT 771) that Amira targets. Amira's pitch against it is cost and coverage: unlimited automated speech-based sessions bundled with screening, versus scheduled human tutor time billed per session.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewedCompany Timeline
Key milestones in Amira Learning's history, with sources.
- Milestone
Michigan approves Amira as a K-3 state reading screener
The Michigan Department of Education named Amira Learning one of two approved reading screeners and progress-monitoring tools for grades K-3 for the 2026-27 school year.
prnewswire.com - Partnership
Jordan Ministry of Education launches national literacy program on Amira
Jordan's Ministry of Education began a national AI literacy initiative with Amira Learning, Carter Education Group and NorthStar Education, piloting with grade 4 and grade 7 students ahead of a year-long scale-up covering up to 800,000 students with Arabic localization for teachers and parents.
prnewswire.com - Partnership
Distribution through Pearson Canada in Ontario
Amira Learning became available to Ontario school boards through Pearson Canada under the Ontario Education Collaborative Marketplace reading programs and intervention agreement.
prnewswire.com - Launch
Intelligent Growth Engine unifies Amira and Istation
The first post-merger product combined Amira's AI reading tutor with Istation's curriculum and reporting, adding AI alerts for teachers, curriculum-aligned assignment recommendations and daily Estimated Mastery Levels. Amira cited 2 million students across 3,000+ schools at launch, with general availability set for the 2025-26 school year.
prweb.com - Partnership
Statewide Louisiana Department of Education agreement
Louisiana expanded Amira from roughly 25,000 students in 2023-24 to 100,000 students across 25 districts for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, and approved Amira as an eligible tutoring option for ACT 771 funds.
prweb.com - Acquisition
Merger with Istation forms combined K-12 literacy platform
Amira Learning and Dallas-based Istation merged under the Amira Learning brand, with Mark Angel remaining CEO and Istation CEO Dick Collins becoming co-chairman of the board. The companies said the combination would reach four million K-12 students across all 50 states and 17 countries and more than 1,800 districts by the end of 2024, targeting roughly 15 percent K-12 market share. Terms were not disclosed; Macquarie Capital advised Istation and Bridge Bank provided a credit facility.
prweb.com - Launch
Amira 2.0 adds LLM-driven comprehension dialogue for K-6
Amira Learning released Amira 2.0, extending the tutor from oral reading fluency into comprehension by using a large language model to hold live, scaffolded dialogue with K-6 students when they show signs of struggling.
edtechinnovationhub.com - Acquisition
Acquired Wonderscope AR reading app from Within
Amira Learning bought Wonderscope, Within's augmented-reality read-aloud app for Apple devices, to fold it into software CNET reported was then used by nearly one million students. Financial terms were not disclosed.
cnet.com - Funding
Series C — $20M from Authentic Ventures
Business Insider reported that Amira Learning raised a $20 million Series C round from Authentic Ventures during 2022, bringing total funding to more than $40 million.
businessinsider.com - Funding
$11M round led by Authentic Ventures II
Amira Learning raised $11 million led by Authentic Ventures II, with Vertical Ventures, Owl Ventures, Rethink Education and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt participating, to push its AI literacy tutor into post-COVID classrooms. Tech Times reported the round as an $11.3 million Series B.
techcrunch.com - Partnership
Exclusive U.S. schools partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
HMH agreed to offer and support Amira's speech-recognition oral-fluency assessment and tutoring software for K-3 learners in U.S. schools under an exclusive partnership. The release describes Amira as built on Carnegie Mellon University technology and led by former senior technical executives from Renaissance Learning.
prnewswire.com - Founded
Amira Learning founded
Business Insider gives Amira Learning's founding year as 2018, with Mark Angel as cofounder and CEO and the company then headquartered in Napa, California. Forbes likewise described Amira in June 2024 as "the six-year-old provider of AI-driven personalized reading support."
businessinsider.com
Explore AI Software Reviews
Browse multi-perspective AI panel reviews across hundreds of AI tools, agents, and platforms. Find the right software with insights from CTO, Developer, Marketer, Finance, and User perspectives.