The edtech market is more crowded than ever, making it difficult for companies–especially startups–to stand out. With Canvas serving as the hub of digital teaching and learning at 8k+ organizations across higher ed, K12, and corporate markets globally, integration with the LMS can be a powerful tool for growth. This has been the experience of TimelyGrader, whose team has been able to access top-notch consulting and strategic co-marketing support through a Professional Tier integration partnership with Instructure. For TimelyGrader, this partnership has translated to rapid brand exposure in the U.S., faster entry into new customer relationships, and the ability to deliver AI-powered grading directly within Canvas–helping educators save time and students get better feedback.
The Challenge
TimelyGrader is an AI-assisted grading and feedback platform that addresses a major pain point in education–enabling an efficient ‘full-circle’ grading process that benefits teachers, students, and administrators.
Any startup leader knows that getting their product in front of the right audience is critical, and particularly in today’s market, credibility is everything. As TimelyGrader CEO Chris Du explains, well-known universities are often hesitant to work with young companies, especially when sensitive student data is involved. Startups must prove their reliability and compliance before they can even be considered by these risk-averse institutions.
Large, well-known public and private institutions work hard to uphold their brands. Sometimes, working with startups poses a risk. We were looking for partnership with an established solution like Canvas to mitigate that,
Du
For startups like TimelyGrader, gaining visibility, building trust, and demonstrating reliability with established institutions can be a significant challenge. Access to the Canvas Certified Integration program, included in the Professional Tier partnership, helps address this by providing a transparent, standardized view of how a tool functions within Canvas, signaling readiness and reliability to institutions and helping younger companies gain a foothold in a crowded market while accelerating conversations with potential customers.
Key Insights
Aligning with Instructure through Professional Tier integration partnership gave TimelyGrader instant credibility with institutions, helping the young startup clear compliance and security hurdles that often block market entry.
Instructure’s open ecosystem allowed TimelyGrader to embed AI-assisted grading directly into the Canvas LMS learning experience, saving educators time and improving feedback for students.
Brand exposure through Instructure’s network and events fueled TimelyGrader’s growth, generating inbound leads and accelerating their U.S. market presence.
The Solution
TimelyGrader recognized that reaching their growth goals meant finding the right partner. Professional Tier integration partnership with Instructure and Canvas LMS opened doors to institutional decision-makers, boosted brand visibility, and helped TimelyGrader build a stronger client base. Equally valuable, this growth was grounded in a shared commitment with Instructure to academic integrity and a more connected, open learning ecosystem.
I think [Professional Tier integration partnership] has elevated our exposure to a level that’s directly opened doors to new clients and business opportunities we couldn’t have reached on our own.
Du
The Value of Professional Tier Partnership
Both Du and Robert Peregoodoff, Chief Learning Officer at TimelyGrader, reflected that being an Instructure Partner has been a major advantage when working with higher education institutions, helping mitigate the hesitancy that often surrounds conversations with startups.
Brand exposure was another key benefit the company sought out when entering into the partnership.
We're targeting the U.S. market because institutions were adopting AI at a much faster rate. It was natural for us to move forward with this integration partnership because of the brand exposure. We've seen those leads materialize through our co-hosted webinar and participating in InstructureCon,
Du
Building Community
The value of a partnership is in the name– and it works best when both sides share a vision.
TimelyGrader’s goal of contributing to an open ecosystem and building community aligns closely with Instructure’s vision of being a platform where all kinds of edtech solutions can thrive. Du noted that this alignment was an important factor in choosing a partner, adding that Canvas’ API documentation has made it easier to build a deep integration that goes beyond LTI standards to complement core Canvas functionality, effectively and safely leverage Canvas user data, and also foster user community.
I believe Instructure sees that bigger picture of having partners building out some of the long ends of the user experience, right? ‘Long end’ meaning, the more specialized, niche user flows,
Du
Beyond shared vision, Du and Peregoodoff emphasized their positive experience working with a human-centered, mission-driven team at Instructure.
...There's been a real human element to this partnership… and it doesn't need to be that way. You folks have not forgotten the human element, which we think is so important,
Peregoodoff
Callout
Through Instructure’s Professional Tier integration partnership, TimelyGrader gained instant credibility with institutions, accelerated U.S. market entry, and showcased its AI-powered grading solution inside Canvas. The partnership provided the brand exposure, compliance backing, and technical support the startup needed to scale– proving the power of collaboration in driving edtech innovation. Explore the Canvas Integration Partnership Tiers to see how Instructure helps edtech solutions grow, scale, and drive adoption.
The Result
Through integration partnership with Instructure, TimelyGrader has gained the brand exposure and the credibility they were after. They were satisfied with high-quality lead-generation results following their co-hosted webinar with Instructure as well as substantially increased activity on product assets referenced in that presentation. They were also able to achieve Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Level IV certification– which not only helps ensure federal funding eligibility in the U.S. K12 market, but also serves as a prerequisite for Instructure’s Co-Sell Program.
Before the partnership, TimelyGrader had just a handful of clients. Within the first year of becoming a Professional Tier partner, the company realized more than 5x growth in their client base–from 4 to 25 institutions–demonstrating the impact of credibility and visibility gained through partnership with Instructure.
Looking ahead, TimelyGrader plans to deepen its collaboration with Instructure by building an LTI integration in the second half of this year to expand market reach, and progressing toward acceptance into Instructure’s Co-Sell Program to further leverage the benefits of the Professional Tier.
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