Innovare

Innovare is a Chicago-based education technology company that develops Inno, a cloud-based data strategy and analytics application for K-12 school leaders and nonprofit executives. Inno aggregates siloed data sources — student information systems, standardized assessments, attendance, reading and math edtech programs, and spreadsheets — into personalized dashboards, enabling leadership teams to build data-driven strategies, sustain continuous improvement practices, and measure real-time impact. In nonprofit organizations, executive directors and boards use the application to visualize impact data, manage key initiatives and measure program return on investment.

The company now describes its offering as a "Strategic Intelligence Platform" (SIP), pairing Inno as the unified workspace for data, planning and collaboration with EdAI, an intelligence layer. The first EdAI module, the Strategist, is live and helps leadership teams convert planning context and data into a structured plan with priorities, goals and next steps. Two additional modules are announced as coming: the Analyst, which continuously reviews data to surface trends, flag risk and connect insights to existing interventions, and the Advocate, which translates data and plans into progress updates and impact reporting for families, caregivers and other stakeholders.

Packaged dashboard templates cover areas including iReady diagnostics, school demographics and attendance, IAR assessment overviews, an MTSS intervention dashboard, and per-student insight views combining academic, attendance and behavioral data. Inno integrates with existing school platforms so data updates automatically, and dashboards can be customized by layout, filter and metric — for example to track progress toward CIWP goals.

Founding story

Innovare was founded in July 2017 to address the needs of K-12 education administrators and nonprofit executives. Its founding team consists of AJ DeLeón (Co-Founder and CEO), whose two-decade career spans the nonprofit, education and philanthropic sectors including Chicago Public Schools and the Gates Foundation; Nicholas Freeman (Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer), a former Chicago Public Schools data strategist; and Fernando DeLeón (Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer), a former Google Product Development Program Manager and Accenture management consultant.

Business model

Software-as-a-service sold to schools, districts and education-focused nonprofits, with a self-serve entry point advertised as "Start for Free" alongside a request-a-meeting sales motion. Integrations with existing school systems and reusable dashboard templates form part of the offering.

Subscription access to the Inno platform and its EdAI modules; the site promotes free entry-level access with paid platform use, though pricing tiers are not disclosed.

Traction

Reported $5M raised to date as of April 2023 and partnerships with schools and districts in California, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Washington DC and Delaware. Customer testimonials come from Chicago-area school leaders and nonprofit organizations including EPIC Academy, MLK Academy and scaleLIT, and from the Wood Family Foundation, which cited time savings on its Chicago Public Schools work.

Latest developments

The EdAI Strategist is live inside Inno, generating structured strategic plans from a school's data and planning context, with the EdAI Analyst (real-time trend and risk surfacing) and EdAI Advocate (stakeholder communication and impact reporting) announced as coming soon. The company is hiring for Growth Strategist and Senior Product Designer roles.