NEWS
Ed tech and educational services
Australia: Vivi Partners raises UK: PE-backed Juniper Education seals two deals funds for US expansion in a month At the end of January private equity-backed Juniper Education snapped up online assessment and reporting provider Maze Education, bolstering its pupil-progresstracking offering that is sold to schools. Earlier in the month Juniper acquired Nottingham-based Prime Principle, developers of Classroom Monitor, the tool used to track pupil progress in around 1,500 schools. Maze Education, which provides information on individual pupils’ performance to primary schools, “brings a new level of insight” to Juniper Education’s offering of software and services which is used in more than 7,000 schools, says Gavin Freed, chairman of the latter business. He adds: “Schools want to be able to provide tailored support to the children in their classrooms. Maze
Education has developed solutions to help schools understand each pupil’s strengths and areas for support so they can design more personalised interventions.” Maze Education takes schools’ test data and creates reports that show how individual pupils performed in various subjects. Juniper Education, which is owned by Horizon Private Equity, was formerly known as EES for Schools. Its portfolio also includes Target Tracker, OTrack and Classroom Monitor. Horizon acquired the business last year from Essex County Council. The business also provides services to assist schools with financial management, teacher training, HR and school visits planning.
Vivi International, an Australian ed tech start-up, has closed a funding round with New Yorkbased investment group, Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC). The funding will help fast-track South Yarra, Victoria-based Vivi’s expansion into the US market. The round was overseen by Melbourne-based independent financial advisory firm, Intrinsic Partners, and combines the RAC funding with investment from a syndicate of Australian investors keen to support growing technology companies. This latest round sees Vivi reach A$6 million in total raised capital over a four-year period. Launched in 2016, Vivi says it provides teachers with classroom management tools that drive student productivity and monitor health and wellbeing. Vivi adds that its screen mirroring solution sets teachers free to roam the classroom and interact
with students, while enabling students to share their screens with the class or small groups for immediate feedback. Vivi founder Lior Rauchberger said: “We are absolutely delighted with the financial backing and support shown by RAC. It’s a real vote of confidence in the business and the impact our software has had on the education sector. We look forward to a long-term partnership that will help us continue to transform student engagement by delivering our classroom management solution to educators around the world.” Natalie Mactier, Vivi chief executive, said: “We’re thrilled to be joining the RAC family, who are the ideal partner to help scale Vivi even faster. We have been overwhelmed by the reception from US schools and the capital raised in partnership with RAC will hyper accelerate our sales and marketing efforts with the goal to become the world’s leading classroom engagement platform.”
US: Hyland takes over blockchain credentialing start-up
China: Investment fund acquires pair of education agencies
Enterprise content management company Hyland has acquired Learning Machine, a blockchain credentialing start-up that grew out of the MIT Labs, Ledger Insights has reported. Learning Machine uses blockchain technology, which underpins bitcoin and other crypto-currency transactions, to authenticate documents and content. Its technology is widely used for issuing digitally secured diplomas and transcripts for and by higher education institutions. Hyland stated that 900 such institutions already use its content services platform.
Global Education Technologies, a Chinese investment company, has acquired a majority stake in two large education agency businesses – iae China and Global Education Alliance, The Pie News has reported. The acquired firms are international student recruitment companies with significant presences in China. iae China was previously part of iae Holdings and is a global student recruitment and marketing consultancy consulting students from China, India, South Korea and other countries on overseas education provision. Hong Kong-based GEA provides
EducationInvestor Global • March 2020
Learning Machine raised $3 million in a 2018 seed round and started out focusing on education, to provide credentials for diplomas and exams. It later expanded its offerings to the government sector for licences and identity, and health records. Hyland is owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
overseas study counselling to students, placement and visa services, and other services for students. Global Education Technologies indicated it will combine the business of GEA – focused in the south – and iae China – focused in the north – with some overlap in central China. Mark Lucas, director of group administration and business development at iae Holdings, said: “Under the new holding company, the two companies are currently operating separate businesses, but later on will be merging the missions, marketing support and training.”
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