Desmos makes math beautiful, grabs a wad of cash from Google

Desmos, a simple and free online graphing calculator, has just sealed a new funding deal from Google Ventures.

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An online graphing calculator might not seem like a big deal to you, but Desmos is saving families $100 per kid in school (seriously, check out the price range for those bad boys). And kids can share their graphs and look at graphs from others, probably learning a bit along the way.

Other free online graphing calculators do exist, but they’re clunky to use, hideous to look at, and don’t produce easily sharable results — a deadly fault in today’s socially oriented learning environments.

“We believe that everyone deserves access to the best educational technology available and that given the right environment and the right tools, all students can understand — and even enjoy — math,” said Desmos founder and CEO Eli Luberoff in a statement on the news.

While the funding terms weren’t disclosed, Google Ventures definitely felt the love, referencing Desmos’ potential impact on STEM education (that’s science, technology, engineering, and math education) in the U.S.

“Math is a subject area where we lose many of our students and our competitive edge,” said GV partner Rich Miner in a release. “If math can come to life, as Desmos is doing, we can build a generation of students that is engaged and deeply interested in the areas of math and science.”

Part of making math fun for kids has been combining graphing for algebra and trigonometry with art — drawing and design based on math. As an example, the company pointed to a Florida algebra classroom where high school students made more than 2,000 images of Mickey Mouse by graphing circles and ellipses.

Check out these other examples:

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Desmos was founded in 2011 and is based in San Francisco. Google Ventures does high-volume seed-stage funding around the Bay Area and beyond; check out our in-depth profile of the firm.

Top image courtesy of olly, Shutterstock