The digital education start-up Kno is in an expansion mode. In an effort to move away from its college-only focus, the company has announced that it will move towards the K-12 segment.

As part of this strategy, Kno has entered into a partnership with major textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which supplies nearly half of textbooks aimed at children from kindergarten through high school, to provide digital versions of such textbooks.

The digital versions of those textbooks cost $9.99 or less and can be used by means of an Apple iPad app. Kno said the platform will soon come to Android and Microsoft Windows 7.

Kno also announced that it has raised about $70 million from a number of well-known backers such as Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.The company will need more contracts to make up that tall assessment and Kno said that it hopes to strike similar deals with other big textbook publishers like McGraw-Hill and Pearson.

It is a great time for electronic books in the education market specifically, as a lot of effort is being made to provide all kinds of educational tools online.The e-book ground is increasingly competitive, with big companies such as Amazon and Apple showing interest in the segment.