Aurora, IL – Trala, an app co-founded by IMSA Alumnus Sam Walder promising to teach violin in minutes, announced that it has raised $1.29M in seed funding from Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn; lead investor Origin Ventures; and Techstars Ventures.
“First-time violinists can learn their first song in 10 minutes instead of three weeks,” says Walder, who also serves as Trala’s CEO. “We’re reinventing music education by unlocking a skill that has been out of reach to most people,” he adds.
Walder’s start-up days began at Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) where he graduated from in 2013.
“IMSA started me on my entrepreneurial path,” he says. “It was at IMSA where I was first taught that starting a company was even possible,” says Walder.
IMSA President Dr. José Torres says that early stage collaboration and entrepreneurial activity among students is vital to IMSA’s prominence as a recognized global leader in equity and excellence, STEM teaching and learning, and innovation and entrepreneurship.
“IMSA creates the conditions for collaboration that foster innovative thinking and instills an entrepreneurial spirit among our students to solve real-world problems,” says Torres. “We congratulate Sam on Trala and take pride in his success,” Torres adds.
Follow Trala on social @TralaApp, visit their app page or trala.com for more information.
