What Centervention does

Centervention, operating as Personalized Learning Games, Inc., is a Durham, North Carolina-based, privately held company founded in 2015 that delivers game-based social-emotional learning (SEL) and mental health tools to U.S. K-12 schools, districts, and individual school-based mental health providers. The platform is structured around four product families: Skills (five game-based SEL programs — Zoo Academy for K-1, Zoo U for grades 2-4, Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN for grades 3-5, Hall of Heroes for middle school, and Stories in Motion for students with ASD/high SEL needs), Assist (200+ supplemental activities and 100+ mental health worksheets), SHARE (a mental health assessment platform with 30+ validated measures developed with the National Center for School Mental Health), and Learn (professional development).

Underlying the games is an adaptive learning engine that personalizes content per student based on in-game decision data and auto-generates baseline and progress reports for educators, with AI-driven tutoring specifically powering Zoo Academy. The platform is delivered web-based and via ClassLink and Clever SSO, is FERPA, COPPA, CCPA, and HIPAA-compliant, and holds CASEL designations and ESSA 'Strong' evidence ratings that materially shorten district procurement.

Centervention earns revenue primarily through recurring subscriptions: $120 for 12-month individual educator licenses covering 1-10 students, and $700 per 100-student School Year Site Licenses including SSO, with custom quotes for districts purchasing 1,000+ student seats. Distribution combines a product-led 30-day free trial funnel (PLG) with an enterprise field-sales motion for large districts, supported by TIPS contracting and DonorsChoose.org crowdfunding for under-funded schools. The company has nine listed employees and has historically been funded by NSF SBIR grants (cumulative ~$1.36M), a 2015 round of ~$165K, and a NewSchools Venture Fund grant in 2019, rather than priced institutional venture capital.

Name

Centervention

Legal name

Personalized Learning Games, Inc.

Website

https://centervention.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Centervention is a Durham, NC-based company that provides game-based social emotional learning programs, supplemental activities, and validated mental health assessments for K-12 schools, districts, and individual educators, sold via annual subscriptions with adaptive AI-driven personalization.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

K-12 Education Technology - Social Emotional Learning and School Mental Health

NAICS

Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Student Safety, Wellbeing & SEL Technology (Monitoring, Reporting) (EDAJAMAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

School-Based SEL Curriculum & Instructional Programs (EDAKAMAA), Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) & Emotional Regulation Programs (EDAMAIAC)

Keywords

• Social emotional learning
• K-12 SEL software
• Mental health assessment platform
• School behavioral interventions
• Game-based learning

Headquarters

HQ city

Durham

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Individual Educator Subscription: 12-month subscription for individual educators and clinicians. Includes access to all five online SEL programs for 1-10 students, plus Assist resources, Share assessment platform, and Learn professional development. Additional blocks of 10 student seats available.
2. School Year Site License: Annual site subscription starting at $700 per 100 students. Unlimited educators, includes virtual cool-down corner and daily emotion check-in. Additional 100-student license blocks available. SSO via ClassLink or Clever included.
3. Enterprise/District Custom Quotes: Custom pricing for districts purchasing 1000+ student licenses. Direct sales engagement required via [email protected].

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Centervention sells a subscription-based online platform of game-based social emotional learning (SEL) programs for K-12 students, paired with a mental health assessment tool (SHARE) and supplemental activity libraries. Programs such as Zoo Academy (K-1), Zoo U (grades 2-4), Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN (grades 3-5), Hall of Heroes (middle school), and Stories in Motion (high-needs students) deliver adaptive, AI-tutored SEL skill practice, with automatic progress tracking for educators. Schools and districts buy annual site licenses while individual educators and clinicians buy 12-month subscriptions, both supported by a 30-day free trial.

Product overview

Centervention offers a comprehensive mental health and social-emotional learning platform consisting of five game-based SEL programs (Skills), a mental health assessment platform (SHARE), supplemental activities (Assist), and professional development (Learn). The core Skills products include Zoo Academy (K-1), Zoo U (grades 2-4), Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN (grades 3-5), Hall of Heroes (middle school), and Stories in Motion (high needs students). All programs feature adaptive learning technology, automatic progress tracking, and daily emotion check-ins. SHARE provides mental health assessment with over 30 validated measures. Assist delivers over 200 supplemental lessons and worksheets plus 100+ mental health resources. The platform integrates with ClassLink and Clever for Single Sign-On, includes a Cool Down Corner feature for emotional regulation, and is FERPA, COPPA, and CIPA compliant.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Zoo Academy: Emotional wellness program for grades K-1 students with 18 unique lessons
• Zoo U
• SS GRIN (Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN)
• Hall of Heroes
• Stories in Motion
• SHARE
• Assist
• Assist MH

Products and services

• Zoo Academy Evidence-based online emotional wellness curriculum for kindergarten to grade 1 students, with 18 unique scenes covering social emotional skills through a fictional school setting (Principal Howard, Ms. Castillo) and including daily emotional check-ins.
• Zoo U Evidence-based online game for grades 2-4 covering six key SEL skills (Communication, Cooperation, Emotion Regulation, Empathy, Impulse Control, and Social Initiation) through 36 unique lessons with personalized assessment and skill-builder scenes.
• Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN Evidence-based online emotional wellness curriculum for grades 3-5 set on Pacifico Island, where students join the SS GRIN crew across 9 immersive scenes covering Respect, Think Ahead, Responsibility, Communication, Check it Out, Building Friendships, and Cooperation.
• Hall of Heroes Student-led online SEL game for middle school students set in a superhero middle school, where students build powers and skills to make friends, resist peer pressure, and save the school from supervillain Dr. Klepto across 15 scenes with real-time feedback from game characters.
• Stories in Motion Interactive online program for elementary students with high needs including ASD that creates personalized social narratives around common school scenarios using 12 topics (anxiety, bullying, coping, friendship, joining in, transitions), producing printable personalized comic books.
• SHARE (Student Health Assessment, Response, and Evaluation) Integrated mental health assessment and screening platform with over 30 validated measures including Child Trauma Screen (CTS), PSC-17, Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), and Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale (VADRS); provides secure digital administration, centralized student profiles, and FERPA/HIPAA compliant reporting for school mental health teams.
• Assist (Supplemental Activities) Student-facing library of over 200 open-and-go SEL focused lessons, worksheets, and printables that supplement the core Skills programs, designed to reduce administrative burden and provide timely intervention options.
• Assist MH Student-facing mental health resources library with over 100 open-and-go worksheets, lessons, articles, and videos covering topics such as Anxiety, Behavior, Depression, Social Skills, Trauma, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
• Learn (Professional Development) Professional development services delivered by mental and behavioral health experts covering strategic capacity building, staff satisfaction, and continuous improvement for educators and districts.

Quantifiable outcome

• Effect size=0.39 for interpersonal strength gains (BERS-2), 0.29 for communication (SSBI), >=0.33 for SELweb measures, >=0.61 for Zoo U skill measures in SS GRIN study with 823 students
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• 3C InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner3C Institute is the developer of the SHARE mental health assessment platform in collaboration with Centervention. Founded by Melissa DeRosier in 2001, 3C Institute is a research and development company devoted to evidence-based tools for health and well-being.
• National Center for School Mental HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with Centervention/3C Institute on developing the SHARE mental health assessment platform with validated behavioral and mental health assessments.
• China ZionLion GroupminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership announced August 2017 to scale Centervention's soft skills learning games to China, expanding international distribution.
• DonorsChoose.orgminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorEducational crowdfunding platform where educators can create projects to fund Centervention program licenses. U.S. public and charter school educators can use the platform.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Nearpod: Nearpod delivers interactive K-12 instructional content including SEL lessons, and competes for district-wide instructional software budgets. Recently acquired by Renaissance Learning, giving it strong distribution that could squeeze niche SEL players.
• Panorama Education: Panorama is a leading K-12 SEL and student success platform offering social-emotional learning surveys, MTSS, and intervention tracking. Directly comparable to Centervention's Skills+SHARE platform but with much broader district footprint and significantly more funding.
• EVERFI: EVERFI provides K-12 digital curricula in SEL, character education, and mental health to school districts at scale. Overlaps with Centervention's SEL Skills and Assist offerings and competes for the same district SEL budget line items.
• ClassDojo: ClassDojo is a widely adopted K-6 classroom community and SEL platform with millions of teachers. While more general-purpose than Centervention, it competes for the same educator SEL engagement budget and benefits from network effects Centervention lacks.
• Second Step (Committee for Children): Committee for Children's Second Step is one of the most widely adopted SEL curricula in U.S. elementary schools. Represents the incumbent classroom-based SEL solution that digital platforms like Centervention are displacing or supplementing.

Direct peers

• Rethink Ed: Rethink Ed provides SEL, behavior management, and MTSS solutions to K-12 districts, with similar evidence-based positioning. Closely comparable to Centervention in both product scope (SEL + behavior) and buyer profile (school counselors, district administrators).
• Aperture Education: Aperture Education offers the DESSA SEL assessment platform and intervention tools for K-12. Directly competes with Centervention's SHARE mental health assessment capability and shares the evidence-based, district-procurement sales motion.
• Base Education: Base Education delivers evidence-based SEL curricula to middle and high schools, with similar emphasis on CASEL alignment and school counselor adoption. Comparable to Centervention's Hall of Heroes product in target buyer and content approach.

Emerging players

• Emotional ABCs: Emotional ABCs provides game-based SEL programs for K-5 students with similar evidence-based positioning and educator subscription model. Comparable niche competitor to Zoo U and SS GRIN in the game-based SEL category.

Others

• Social Solutions International: Social Solutions (Apricot) provides outcomes measurement for human services, including school-based programs. Adjacent category relevant to Centervention's progress monitoring and outcomes reporting capabilities.

Market position

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Centervention

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Centervention