💥New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Conscious Content Media Inc. d/b/a Begin💥
Edtech company schools itself on overleverage and misguided business plans.
Back on December 17, 2025, NYC-based Conscious Content Media, Inc. d/b/a Begin and four affiliates (collectively, the “debtors” or the “company”) filed chapter 11 cases in the District of Delaware (Judge Shannon). The debtors are an edtech company with programs for kids aged 2-10 that teach everything from the usual math and reading to “21st century skills” like coding and socio-emotional learning through a combination of digital apps and physical learning kits.
The debtors offer their learning products under a few brands: HOMER (acquired January ’17), codeSpark (acquired May ’21), Little Passports (acquired December ’21). They also have a collab with Sesame Street (launched September ’22).
The debtors acquired the majority of their brands and offerings during the pandemic-driven boom in educational technologies. The debtors funded these acquisitions with debt raised from Magnetar Financial LLC (“Magnetar”) and with unsecured seller notes from approximately 180 shareholders of the acquired companies. The company issued more debt to fund operations in ’23 and ’24.
Founder and CEO Neal Shenoy sums up how these debtors were thinking in his First Day Declaration:
“The Debtors raised significant capital to fund acquisitions and working capital under the expectation that its revenues would grow predictably and it would operate profitably, enabling it to service, repay or refinance its debt at maturity in the future.”
The company’s acquisition spree was perfectly timed with the top of the market for edtech. Soon after, demand for edtech products, which spiked during the pandemic, started to normalize to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, customer acquisition costs skyrocketed and raising equity capital became more challenging. The combination of these factors put the company’s goal of turning a profit further out of reach.