Persona Education

What Persona Education does

Persona Education is a UK-based ed-tech company founded in 2020 by Pete Read and Dr Leila Khouja Walker, headquartered in Bristol at 18 Berkeley Square. The company provides Persona Life Skills, an online social-emotional learning (SEL) SaaS platform for students aged 11-19 across secondary schools, colleges, and youth development programs. The product centers on a proprietary personality insights framework combining psychology, behavioral science, and pedagogy, developed with Innovate UK and Google R&D support, and is mapped to Ofsted, CASEL, ISI, IB, Cambridge, and PSHE Association standards. The platform delivers 20+ teacher-facilitated Life Challenge Modules ('Discovery Islands') and 66 self-directed learning modules organized across three levels (Start, Apply, Challenge), targeting 22 life skills across six skillsets, with a Persona Profile feature, Persona Adaptability assessment, and a Spiral Curriculum framework supporting 3-year and 5-year progressive deployments.

The platform is built as a web-based adaptive curriculum accessible across Chromebook, Surface, laptop, PC, tablet, and smartphone devices, with progress monitoring at whole-school, cohort, group, and student levels. Compliance posture is strong for a youth-facing product: GDPR, UK Data Protection Act 2018, COPPA, CCPA, and Australian Privacy Principles compliance, with data hosted on Google Cloud Platform under ISO 27001/27017/27018. The product is positioned to address Tier 1 classroom, blended or remote learning, Tier 2/3 interventions, and homeschooling.

The business model is B2B SaaS subscriptions on three annual tiers: Teacher Package (£149+VAT/year for up to 30 students), School/College Subscription (up to £15/student/year with a 100-student minimum), and Home School Subscription (£118.80/year for 3 students). Go-to-market combines direct enterprise sales for school-wide deployments, self-serve website signup, freemium trials, and channel partnerships with education technology platforms including Lumio (SMART Technologies), Hays Education Hub, Sunburst Digital (US), BenQ (UK), and NetSupport (classroom.cloud). The company is funded by two Innovate UK grants (May and November 2020) with no disclosed venture or growth equity investment, and reports 650+ institutions across 52 countries with 202,184 students reached, citing 94% student-reported life skill improvement and 96% teacher-observed positive outcomes.

Name

Persona Education

Legal name

Persona Education Ltd

Website

https://persona-life.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Persona Education is a UK-based ed-tech company providing Persona Life Skills, an online social-emotional learning SaaS platform for students aged 11-19, serving 650+ secondary schools, colleges, and homeschool families across 52 countries via annual subscriptions and channel partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Social-Emotional Learning Software

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (61), Elementary and Secondary Schools (6111)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) & Wellbeing Digital Curriculum (EDAFACAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Student Safety, Wellbeing & SEL Technology (Monitoring, Reporting) (EDAJAMAJ), Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) & Emotional Regulation Programs (EDAMAIAC)

Keywords

• Social-emotional learning
• Life skills platform
• Personality insights
• Secondary education software
• Online learning SaaS

Headquarters

HQ city

Bristol

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Educational Institution Subscriptions: Annual subscription model for educational institutions with per-student pricing tiers. School/College tier capped at GBP15/student/year with minimum 100 students. Teacher package at GBP149/year for 30 students. Home School package at GBP118.80/year for 3 students.
2. Freemium/Trial Model: Free trials available for teachers and schools to experience the platform before purchasing full subscriptions. Partnerships with Lumio and Hays Education Hub provide free access to teacher resources.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Persona Education provides Persona Life Skills, an online social-emotional learning (SEL) SaaS platform for students aged 11-19 that uses a proprietary personality insights framework to develop 22 life skills across six skillsets. The platform is sold by annual subscription to secondary schools, colleges, individual teachers, and homeschool families, with usage in Tier 1 classroom, blended, and remote learning environments.

Product overview

Persona Education offers Persona Life Skills, a unified online social-emotional learning platform for students age 11-19. The platform centers on a proprietary personality insights framework ('Self/Friends') developed with UK government R&D funding and Google. It comprises three subscription tiers (Teacher Package, School/College Subscription, Home School Subscription), a central Persona Profile feature with Self Insights, Friends Insights, Persona Community, and Persona Adaptability components, 20+ teacher-facilitated Life Challenge Modules (Discovery Islands), 66 Self-Directed Learning Modules (My Guided Tours) at three levels, and a Spiral Curriculum framework. Content is also distributed through partner platforms Lumio and Hays Education Hub. The platform maps to multiple educational frameworks including Ofsted, CASEL, IB, and PSHE Association.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Persona Life Skills An online social-emotional learning platform for students aged 11-19 that uses a proprietary personality insights approach to develop 22 life skills across six skillsets, boosting wellbeing, academic achievement, and employability. Sold by annual subscription to secondary schools, colleges, individual teachers, and homeschool families.

Quantifiable outcome

• 94% of students report improved life skills after using the platform
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Jordan Ministry of EducationflagshipChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2022Approved roll-out partnership with Jordan's Ministry of Education for implementing social-emotional learning across Jordanian educational institutions.
• Lumio (by SMART Technologies)coreTechnology or IntegrationFree web-based collaborative learning platform partnership. Lumio provides integrated access to Persona Education's social-emotional learning content within their platform.
• Hays Education HubcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFree teacher resources partnership providing educators with access to Persona Education's social-emotional learning materials through the Hays Education Hub platform.
• Sunburst DigitalcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorUS-based partnership for distributing Persona Education's platform to schools and homeschool families across the United States market.
• PearsonflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPilot partnership for social-emotional skills digital badges, exploring credentialing and certification of SEL competencies through Pearson's educational platforms.
• BenQcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorUK partnership for integrating and distributing Persona Education's platform through BenQ's educational technology solutions in the United Kingdom.
• Skills BuildercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerImpact Partner status, collaborating on essential skills development programs and measuring the impact of social-emotional learning on skill building.
• Global Independent Schools AssociationminorGTM or Marketing PartnerKnowledge Partner status for collaboration on best practices and knowledge sharing related to social-emotional learning in independent schools.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• EVERFI: K-12 digital curriculum company delivering social-emotional, financial literacy, and life-skills courses to schools at no cost via sponsor-funded or district-licensed models. Direct competitor in K-12 SEL/life skills digital curriculum with established US school district relationships that rival Persona's institutional footprint.
• CharacterStrong: Provider of PreK-12 character-development and SEL curriculum (Purposeful People, Character Crew) combining lessons with advisory and culture tools. Closest US peer to Persona's combined SEL + character/employability curriculum, with similar teacher-facilitated model for secondary students.
• Rethink Ed: K-12 SEL, mental health, and behavior intervention platform providing online curriculum, training, and screener tools. Direct competitor to Persona's secondary SEL/career-readiness curriculum via similarly structured teacher-facilitated modules and progress monitoring.
• Committee for Children: Nonprofit developer of Second Step, the most widely used K-8 SEL curriculum in the US, now extending into secondary. Closest like-for-like competitor to Persona's SEL curriculum SaaS model, with comparable teacher-facilitated lesson modules and CASEL alignment, though typically sold as curriculum kits rather than adaptive online platforms.
• BASE Education: Online SEL curriculum specifically designed for secondary students (grades 6-12), focused on Tier 2/3 interventions and self-guided learning — almost identical target segment and use-case overlap with Persona's secondary-school SEL platform and Discovery Islands model.
• Xello: K-12 college, career, and future-readiness program with online student portfolios used in UK, US, and Canadian secondary schools. Closest peer to Persona's career/work-readability modules (Leadership, Job Choices, Work Experience) — overlapping use case on the employability side of Persona's offering.

Emerging players

• Peekapak: Early-stage digital SEL platform for K-5 (expanding toward secondary) using storytelling-based interactive lessons. Comparable as a peer-style SEL SaaS for schools, though primarily elementary-focused, positioning Persona as the more secondary-capable option.
• Skills Builder: UK-based social enterprise providing essential skills/employability curriculum and impact measurement; listed as a Persona 'Impact Partner'. Highly comparable outcomes framework and complementary (rather than fully overlapping) SEL/essential-skills curriculum offering for UK secondary schools and colleges.

Broad incumbents

• Nearpod: Major K-12 interactive lesson and formative-assessment platform with a growing SEL/wellbeing content library (FLINTA, SEL lessons). Broad incumbent with overlapping channels (Lumio/SMART ecosystem integration) where Persona also distributes, posing competitive pressure inside the partner itself.
• Panorama Education: Leading K-12 student-success platform combining SEL surveys, college/career readiness, and MTSS workflows. Broader incumbent that competes both at the SEL curriculum layer (Playbook) and at the wellbeing-monitoring/reporting layer that Persona serves, with significantly larger headcount and district-level contracts.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCuoEynQgzsd8prjljhEPLsQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/personalifeskills
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/persona-education

Compliance10 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Persona Education