Dolly
AI-powered assessment that gives teachers their time back
UK Secondary Schools · GCSE-Aligned · Full Assessment Cycle
Dolly
AI-powered assessment that gives teachers their time back
UK Secondary Schools · GCSE-Aligned · Full Assessment Cycle
The Problem
Teachers Are Leaving Because of Marking
8.2 hrs
per week spent on marking alone
DfE Workload Survey 2025
52%
of teachers have considered leaving due to marking workload
Learnosity 2025
1 in 3
new teachers leave the profession within 5 years
DfE
Where Teacher Time Goes (49.3 hrs/week)
“Marking takes so much time. I’d rather spend that time planning personalised, fun lessons instead of just functional ones.”
Secondary School Teacher
Why Now
The Perfect Storm for AI in Education
Government investment, teacher AI adoption, and an efficacy reckoning are converging to create the biggest opportunity in UK EdTech.
Teacher AI Adoption Has Doubled
60%
teacher AI adoption
60% of UK teachers already use AI tools, up from 25% in 2023. But they rate generic tools at only 40% classroom-ready. The market needs purpose-built solutions.
DfE Investing in AI for Education
£1M
DfE AI investment
The Department for Education announced £1M investment in AI tool development and expanded EdTech trials at BETT 2026. Government policy is actively backing AI in schools.
The Efficacy Reckoning
10%+
minimum learning lift expected
Investors and schools are shifting from growth-at-all-costs to proof of learning impact. EdTech tools must now demonstrate measurable outcomes to survive.
£70M in Expiring Contracts
93
contracts expiring
93 EdTech contracts worth £70M are expiring within the next two years across UK schools and MATs. Incumbents are raising prices, creating an opening for alternatives.
The Solution
The Complete Assessment Cycle, Automated
Dolly is the only platform that covers the full assessment cycle in one place. Teachers save up to 6 hours per week while every student receives personalised feedback.
Create
Upload curriculum materials or describe a topic. AI generates GCSE-aligned assessments with mark schemes.
Grade
AI marks against GCSE levels-of-response criteria. Confidence scoring flags uncertain grades for review.
Feedback
Every student receives personalised feedback covering strengths, improvements, and next steps.
Close Gaps
AI identifies weak topics and generates targeted flashcards, study guides, and practice materials.
6 hours saved per teacher per week · +6 months student progress from effective feedback (EEF) · 100% of students receive personalised feedback
The Product
Built for UK Secondary Teachers
Assignment Creation
AI Grading with Confidence Scores
Personalised Student Feedback
Class Analytics & Gap Identification
Market Opportunity
A Large, Underserved Market
£31.2B
UK EdTech Market by 2030
TAM
£840M
AI Assessment & Marking
SAM
£42M
UK Secondary
SOM
Source: IMARC Group 2025, Grand View Research
500,000+
Secondary teachers in England
1,170
Multi-Academy Trusts managing multiple schools
3,500+
Secondary schools in England
13% CAGR
UK EdTech market growth rate (2025–2030)
Land-and-expand via MATs: Win one school in a trust, expand to the entire portfolio. The 29 largest MATs each manage 26+ schools.
Business Model
Freemium Land-and-Expand
Free
Individual teachers discover and adopt organically
Plus
Power users convert when they hit free tier limits
Enterprise
Schools and MATs buy when 5+ teachers are active
The Flywheel
Teacher signs up free
Shares with colleagues
5+ teachers active
School buys enterprise
MAT rolls out trust-wide
Traction
Early Signals
Product Milestones
Full assessment cycle live
Create, grade, feedback, and gap closure — end-to-end in one platform
GCSE curriculum alignment
Supports major exam boards with levels-of-response marking criteria
AI confidence scoring
Every grade includes a confidence score — teachers know exactly when to review
Anthropic customer case study
Featured on claude.com/customers/dolly as an AI-in-education success story
Anthropic Developer Programme
Direct access to Anthropic engineering support and early model releases
What Teachers Are Saying
“The post-quiz answer grids are brilliant. Being able to see % correct per question means I can spot gaps instantly.”
Secondary School Teacher
“There's not much out there for engaging, curriculum-aligned resources that can run without a teacher. Dolly can do this.”
Secondary School Teacher
“It was really quick to get started. Uploading a class took no time at all.”
Secondary School Teacher
“Even a basic Forms quiz takes 1.5 to 2 hours to mark for 30 pupils.”
Secondary School Teacher
Research-backed impact: The EEF Teaching & Learning Toolkit shows effective personalised feedback delivers +6 months additional student progress per academic year.
Competition
They Help You Plan. We Help You Mark.
Existing tools focus on lesson planning and content generation. No one solves the full assessment cycle.
| Capability | Copilot | Gemini | ChatGPT | Dolly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI grades student work | ||||
| Confidence scoring on grades | ||||
| Per-student gap analysis | ||||
| UK curriculum aligned (GCSE) | ||||
| Lesson planning tools | ||||
| General content generation |
The only platform covering the full assessment cycle: create, grade, feedback, gap identification, and gap closure.
The Team
Teachers Who Became Developers
We left the classroom to build what we wished existed. We understand marking workload because we’ve lived it. That lived experience drives every product decision.
<<Professional headshot of a friendly male educator in his early 30s, warm natural lighting, neutral background, wearing a smart casual button-down shirt. Approachable and confident expression. Clean, modern portrait style.>>
[Founder Name]
CEO & Co-Founder
Former secondary school teacher. 6+ years in the classroom before transitioning to software engineering.
<<Professional headshot of a confident female educator in her early 30s, warm natural lighting, neutral background, wearing a smart blazer. Friendly and determined expression. Clean, modern portrait style.>>
[Co-Founder Name]
CTO & Co-Founder
Former teacher turned full-stack engineer. Deep expertise in AI/ML, cloud architecture, and education technology.
<<Professional headshot of a thoughtful male professional in his late 20s, warm natural lighting, neutral background, wearing a casual sweater. Approachable expression. Clean, modern portrait style.>>
[Team Member]
Head of Product
Background in education and product design. Focused on building tools teachers actually want to use.
Anthropic Customer Case Study
Featured on claude.com/customers/dolly
Anthropic Developer Programme
Engineering support & early model access
AWS EdStart Member
Amazon's education technology programme
Use of Funds
How We’ll Deploy Capital
Allocation
Product & Engineering
45%
AI model fine-tuning, platform development, infrastructure scaling
Go-to-Market
30%
Teacher acquisition, school partnerships, MAT outreach, content marketing
Operations & Compliance
15%
SOC 2 certification, DfE toolkit compliance, customer success
Working Capital
10%
12-month runway buffer
Key Milestones (18 months)
Q1–Q2
Launch school pilot programme (10 schools)
SOC 2 Type II certification
MIS integration (SIMS, Arbor)
Q3–Q4
First MAT partnership (5+ schools)
1,000 active teachers
Enterprise tier launch
Q5–Q6
Expand to 5 MATs
5,000 active teachers
Series A readiness
Let’s Give Teachers Their Time Back
We’re raising
[Amount]
Pre-Seed / Seed
hello@godolly.ai
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