Brainscape
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Educational technology |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founder | Andrew S. Cohen |
Key people | Andrew S. Cohen (Founder), Andy Lutz (Co-founder), Jonathan Thomas (CTO) |
| Products | Digital flashcards, study modes, collaborative editing tools, teacher management dashboards |
| Website | brainscape |
Brainscape is an educational platform available on both web and mobile devices that allows students, educators, and corporate trainers to design, upload, and access customizable digital flashcards. Collaborating with seasoned educators and publishing partners, the platform ensures that flashcards meet rigorous instructional criteria. All flashcards are stored in the cloud and can be shared within learning communities.
The platform utilizes spaced repetition to improve study effectiveness. Learners assign a confidence score between 1 and 5 to each flashcard, influencing how frequently the card is reviewed—items marked with lower confidence are repeated more often until mastery is achieved. This technique, known as confidence-based repetition (CBR), enhances study efficiency by integrating concepts from active recall and metacognition. Brainscape has produced research validating the success of this evidence-based approach grounded in cognitive science.
History
Andrew S. Cohen founded Brainscape after developing the idea during his language studies in Panama and Martinique between 2005 and 2007. Frustrated by tools such as Rosetta Stone, Cohen created a self-quizzing system using Excel that applied spaced repetition tailored to his individual learning speed for vocabulary and verb conjugations.
He later earned a master's degree in education technology at Columbia University, concentrating on confidence-based repetition (CBR) and building a Java prototype of the system. In 2010, Cohen teamed up with Andy Lutz, a former VP of product at The Princeton Review, and by 2015 they had raised over $3 million in venture funding.
With Jonathan Thomas as CTO, Brainscape expanded its extensive "knowledge genome" database to encompass hundreds of millions of flashcards and attracted several million users, notably among graduate-level and medical students.
Services
Brainscape provides digital flashcards, various study modes, collaborative editing tools, and teacher management dashboards accessible via its website and mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.