Learnist is one of the relatively new but noteworthy educational social networks. We write about it a lot. We have a couple Grockit (the folks who built Learnist) folks write stories on Edudemic on a regular basis. We’re fans. Check out our board ‘Must See Education News‘ for a simple way you can use Learnist.

So that’s why we were pretty psyched to speak to Farbood Nivi, the founder of Grockit, who unveiled the new look of Learnist. He also showed off the new iPad app for Learnist as well as some major funding news ($20 million in the form of capital, shared technology, marketing, distribution and promotion) opportunities they’re announcing.

The New Learnist Design

First off, here’s the new homepage layout of the site alongside the prior version:

As you can see, the new layout is cleaned up and looking less like a Pinterest clone. While Pinterest’s masonry layout may still be all the rage in web design (you can’t go to a new startup site without running into a Pinterest-style layout), it’s nice to see Grockit take a different direction. The new layout, magnified below, is more organized and less scattershot.

You can now browse an icon-free menu (hooray!) and also find new users to follow. Then you can actually follow them with ease thanks to a big and bright orange ‘follow’ button. Before, you had to do a few more clicks and that got pretty tiresome. After all, there’s a reason Twitter lets you follow people so easily. They want you to follow folks and start enhancing your network! Same with Learnist.

The Funding News

Farbood shared some wild news about a now-official investment. They had a $20 million round led by Discovery Communications, Inc. which you may recognize as one of the big names in education / technology these days. Here’s more from the press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — December 18, 2012 — Grockit, the social learning company that introduced Learnist in May 2012, today announced that Discovery Communications, Inc., the world’s number one nonfiction media company will lead a new round of strategic investment that also includes participation from Summit Group, investors in Uber and Scribd, and previous investors Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital, Integral Capital Partners and GSV Capital Corp. In addition to the capital investment, the relationship with Discovery also includes shared technology, as well as exploring marketing, distribution and promotion opportunities with Learnist. Discovery’s investment in Grockit represents the first social learning startup investment from a global leader in TV and digital media.

“As Discovery focuses its digital strategy around strengthening its position in video as the #1 nonfiction media company across all screens, we also see strategic growth opportunities in select investments in the next generation knowledge space,” said JB Perrette, Chief Digital Officer, Discovery Communications. “Discovery’s commitment to igniting people’s curiosity and passion for learning is a natural fit with Learnist’s unique knowledge platform and model that encourages passionate audiences to share what they know and learn what they don’t. Discovery is proud to lead this round of financing and excited about the many ways that our strategic investment will help to expand the reach and further development of the Learnist platform.”

The latest round of funding coincides with the launch of a re-designed Learnist website focused on highlighting its growing community of experts, including industry leaders like Bobby Chang, founder of In-Case, Clark Scheffy, founder of Ideo, and Eric Ries, the best selling author of The Lean Startup. With continued improvements to the user experience since launch, Learnist’s user base has increased by 400 percent, and user-engagement has doubled. The Learnist apps for iPhone and iPad have also been updated, and now enable users to create and add content to Learnist.

“With Learnist, we have found a way to build the most engaging and connected social learning experience ever. Discovery Communications shared our vision of connecting curious people everywhere with amazing content,” says Roy Gilbert, CEO of Grockit. “Our relationship will combine Learnist social learning technology with Discovery’s massive reach and footprint. Together, we look forward to encouraging more people to share what they know and learn from each other.”

About Learnist

Learnist was launched in May 2012 to encourage people to learn from and teach each other about a wide range of academic and casual learning topics. Users can curate digital and online resources into a media-rich board, called a Learn Board, to share their expert knowledge. Since the launch in May 2012, Learnist content and utility have developed quickly. Currently, 100 percent of US Common Core Standards for grades 7-12 are available on Learnist. Learnist for iPad and Learnist for iPhone were launched in September 2012 helping people learn about anything, anywhere. It was also included in TIME magazine’s best websites in 2012. Learnist is available for iPhone and iPad here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learnist/id522850398. For more information please visit Learni.st

About Grockit

Grockit was founded to advance online social learning as the dominant instructional design for all human learning. Applying adaptive learning algorithms and innovative social networking and online gaming technologies, Grockit and Learnist users discover a fun and engaging learning experience. Founded in 2007 by Farb Nivi, a former Teacher of the Year for The Princeton Review and academic director at Kaplan, Grockit is headquartered in San Francisco and has received funding from Discovery Communications, Inc., Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital, Integral Capital Partners, GSV Capital, Summit Series Action Fund, NewSchools Ventures and prominent angel investors, including Reid Hoffman (founder, LinkedIn) and Mark Pincus (founder and CEO, Zynga). For more information, please visit www.grockit.com.

About Discovery Communications

Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) is the world’s #1 nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.8 billion cumulative subscribers in 209 countries and territories. Discovery is dedicated to satisfying curiosity through 149 worldwide television networks, led by Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science and Investigation Discovery, as well as U.S. joint venture networks OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, The Hub and 3net, the first 24-hour 3D network. Discovery also is a leading provider of educational products and services to schools and owns and operates a diversified portfolio of digital media services, including Revision3. For more information, please visit www.discoverycommunications.com.