Mask Nextgen

About the offering

NextGen Shield, Inc. is the company behind MASK NextGen, an AI-driven digital safety and cybersecurity education platform targeting K-12 students. The platform is headquartered in Austin, TX and is currently in a soft-launch fundraising phase on Wefunder, having raised $50,000 from 6 investors thus far. The core product is described as a Duolingo-style gamified learning platform powered by adaptive AI that personalizes each student's experience based on learning patterns and real-time risk signals. The platform is built around a proprietary SHIELD Framework, which the company claims is the first AI-driven system to unify global K-12 digital citizenship standards (ISTE, CASEL, FOSI, Common Sense Media, NCMEC) into a single measurable curriculum spine. Students progress through immersive gameplay—missions, narrative arcs, leveling, and boss battles—accompanied by characters (Myra, Noor, Jaylen, Alex) that age alongside them from Grades 3–5 through Grades 9–12. The curriculum evolves across grade bands: foundational online safety in elementary, algorithmic manipulation and grooming awareness in middle school, and AI ethics, data privacy, and digital civics in high school. The company has completed an MVP with interactive cybersecurity lessons centered on its digital guardian character Myra, and has secured copyright registration for core content and character IP. Paid pilot agreements are reported to be in place for Fall 2025 with multiple K-12 institutions. Additional traction claims include a 90%+ student engagement rate, a California pilot district expanding district-wide, a large US school district planning full rollout, and the Nevada State School Board seeking implementation. The addressable market is framed around over 14,000 K-12 school districts in the US, with global expansion potential, and is cited as a $50B global market for children's digital safety. The company highlights federal cybersecurity pilot funding programs as an unlocked revenue channel for schools. The business model is described as recurring (SaaS-style) with built-in annual expansion due to a self-replenishing student population. The founding team includes CEO Avani Trivedi (background in EdTech SaaS at Ellucian and cybersecurity at TriVigil, claims $350K+ raised previously), CTO Victor Falana (AI-driven security architecture, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance), and advisor Matt Yeager (EdTech leadership, Governor-appointed Texas Broadband Development Council member). A featured investor, Harshal Shah (CEO of The Venture Build), has committed $5,000. Go-to-market strategy relies on a partnership with TriVigil leveraging existing K-12 advisory council relationships, e-rate partnerships, and higher education networks. The platform's LLM backend is designed for rapid content updates as new threats emerge. Potential exit paths cited include acquisition by EdTech giants, cybersecurity companies, or operation as a standalone educational platform.

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