🔎 Spotlight #18: Inside Top Hat
The Toronto edtech company making classrooms more interactive.
The founding story: bringing classrooms into the digital age
Top Hat was founded in 2009 by Mike Silagadze and Mohsen Shahini in Toronto. Both had experienced the frustration of traditional lecture halls where professors talked at students, and engagement was often limited to whoever raised their hand. They wondered: what if technology could make classrooms more interactive and participatory?
Their answer was Top Hat, a platform that lets professors run polls, quizzes, discussions, and even full textbooks directly through students’ devices. Instead of passively listening, students could engage in real time, and instructors could measure comprehension on the spot.experience that made healthcare feel approachable rather than bureaucratic.
What Top Hat actually does
At its core, Top Hat builds interactive learning software designed to make higher education more engaging, for both professors and students. The platform replaces static slides and traditional textbooks with live polls, quizzes, and digital course materials that drive real-time participation in and outside the classroom.
For instructors, Top Hat offers tools to design, deliver, and grade content more efficiently, while tracking how students are engaging with their material. For students, it transforms lectures from passive listening to active learning, giving them a voice in the process and better retention through interactivity.
Over the years, Top Hat has expanded beyond classroom engagement. Today, it’s an end-to-end learning platform that includes homework tools, assessments, attendance tracking, and customizable textbooks, all under one roof. The mission is simple but ambitious: make learning more human, by helping educators connect better with their students through technology.
Funding and team at a glance
💰 Raised more than $130M USD from investors like Georgian Partners, Inovia Capital, and Union Square Ventures
👥 400+ employees with a strong Toronto presence
🌎 Serves 750+ higher ed institutions across North America
🖥️ Website: tophat.com
The competition and how Top Hat compares
Top Hat competes with big names in edtech like Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Cengage, as well as software-first players like Kahoot!, Poll Everywhere, and Canvas.
Where Top Hat stands out is its focus on live engagement. Traditional publishers may have content, and LMS platforms may manage classes, but Top Hat’s sweet spot is making real-time learning more interactive and measurable. That focus has helped it stay sticky on campuses even as edtech trends shift. I’ve actually used Top Hat personally in class back in my second year finance class and I actually quite enjoyed using it. It made class more fun and easier to participate and be active.
Bringing AI into the classroom in a meaningful way
Top Hat recently rolled out a new wave of AI-powered teaching tools, and what’s impressive is how practical and instructor-focused they are. Instead of using AI as a buzzword, Top Hat is using it to actually solve day-to-day problems educators face.
Their latest feature lets instructors generate AI-crafted examples that explain concepts in different ways depending on the student’s background, skill level, or learning style. Think of it like having a co-teacher who can instantly produce alternate explanations, real-world analogies, or simplified breakdowns of tough topics.
For professors teaching large or diverse classes, this is huge. It means they can:
Create multiple variations of the same example to reach different learners
Personalize complex topics without spending hours writing new material
Make lectures more inclusive and accessible
Increase engagement with content that feels more relatable
The goal from my understanding isn’t to replace instructors, it’s to give them superpowers. Top Hat is positioning AI as a tool that enhances teaching, not automates it. And in a world where students expect more interactive, modern learning, these features help educators bridge that gap without burning out.
This move also reinforces Top Hat’s broader philosophy: technology should make learning more human, not less. AI becomes a way to elevate the teaching experience rather than standardize it.
My take
Top Hat is a great example of a Canadian company solving a universal problem: making education less passive and more engaging. With so many debates about the future of higher ed, it’s refreshing to see a platform that bridges traditional classrooms with modern technology instead of trying to replace them outright.
Personally, I like that Top Hat has leaned into content ownership alongside engagement tools. It gives them a long-term moat and positions them to be a core part of course delivery, not just an add-on.
If you care about the future of education and want to see Canadian startups leading the charge, Top Hat is one worth keeping close watch on.
🧭 Top Hat Roles
These are some pretty cool roles at Top Hat in the moment. Although not much, I encourage you to keep in tune with future LaunchPad job posts to see any new exciting roles that pop up at Top Hat and many other cool firms!
That’s a wrap on Spotlight #18
If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I hope these spotlights help you discover companies worth your time, and make the job hunt feel just a little bit less overwhelming. Keep an eye out for next Tuesday’s LaunchPad job drop, and if you know someone looking to break into tech or level up, feel free to share this with them too.
Here’s to building something cool, or better yet, joining something cool. 🚀
