ONLINE EDUCATION
Tequity | September 02, 2021
Tequity, an M&A advisory firm specializing in global Enterprise B2B Cloud, SaaS, and IT companies, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to online training software Greenius, a leader in online training solutions for the green industry, in their acquisition by LMN, a Serent Capital portfolio company and North America's leading B2B landscape business management software company.
On working with Tequity, Jay Murray, Greenius Co-Founder and CEO said "I am really glad we engaged Tequity to help us sell our business - they have a deep knowledge of the SaaS market that was invaluable throughout the project from start to finish. I didn't realize the extent of the due diligence process before we began but Tequity worked with us and the buyer to keep things simple and avoid complications where possible. With Tequity's guidance I truly believe we were able to achieve a better outcome for the shareholders than if we had tried to go it alone, with a very strategic buyer who appreciates our technology, our customers, and our people."
London, Ontario-based Greenius is an industry leader with a proven track record of delivering exceptional online courses for landscape owners. Its team joins LMN immediately, filling an increasing customer need. A recent survey of LMN customers found that 70 percent identified training as a top priority for their employees in the coming years.
Together, Greenius and LMN will create the green industry's first fully integrated system offering end-to-end training together with comprehensive business management software, providing landscaping business owners everything they need in one system. Greenius will also continue to be provided as a stand-alone offering to customers.
"The addition of Greenius to the LMN family is huge for our customers, and the industry," said Mark Bradley, CEO, LMN. "We know just how important training is to landscaping leaders and their teams, and with Greenius, we can provide the best available training to help customers meet and exceed their needs."
Greenius bolsters LMN's training capabilities. The company offers hundreds of courses in both English and Spanish each year on a variety of topics to the green industry, including but not limited to maintenance, construction, snow, safety, equipment, supervisor training and more.
Many companies continue to be challenged by skilled labor shortages. With the addition of Greenius, landscape owners using the LMN platform will now have more opportunities to develop team members within their organizations to foster growth and retain employees.
"We could not be more excited to join LMN," said Arden Urbano, Co-Founder and President, Greenius, who will continue to lead the Greenius team. "We share the same values and passion for customers, and together we will create an experience that will help them take their companies and the industry to the next level."
About Tequity
Tequity assists Enterprise B2B SaaS, Cloud, and IT companies with business growth and exit strategies. Our mission is simple: Achieve the best outcome for our clients. With decades of combined experience as executives, consultants, and owners of software and technology companies, we leverage our deep industry knowledge across tech ecosystems and our relationships with strategic, growth-focused buyers around the globe to drive successful M&A transactions.
Read More
ONLINE EDUCATION
Questionmark | September 08, 2021
New technologies are making workplace training more efficient, accessible and relevant than ever. Though social distancing measures are easing, employers should continue to invest in online learning to equip teams with the modern skills they need, says online assessment provider, Questionmark.
Many employers shifted training online when it became impossible to deliver face-to-face programs. And 18 months later, senior leaders have noted several benefits which make the case not to go back.
These include:
Efficiency – online learning cuts out travel time and can speed up delivery.
Personal relevance – online learning programs do not depend on a critical mass of employees coming together in one physical location. It is easier to tailor content to the needs of an individual.
Frequency and agility – the business environment is constantly shifting. Modular, bite-sized training is often more effective at equipping workers with the modern skills they need. Online training is easier to deliver in small, more regular chunks.
Flexibility – because participants do not need to travel to one place, people can log on at a time that suits their working pattern.
Cost and convenience – there are no time or travel costs, so workers don’t need to down tools while they travel to and from a physical center. Of course, this also saves on the environmental impact of such travel.
John Kleeman, Founder of Questionmark said: “Online training has emerged as a more effective way of upskilling team members and ensuring training is relevant to their constantly-evolving needs. It is essential that during and after the training, leaders test that people have learned what they should.”
By testing participants during and after the training, employers can be confident that it’s worked. Where participants are failing to grasp the subject matter, managers can provide additional support. By testing skills and knowledge before the training, leaders can make an informed call on which team members actually need it. Assessments can reveal individual areas of strength and weakness and ensure training is more tailored.
About Questionmark
Questionmark provides a secure enterprise-grade assessment platform and professional services to leading organizations around the world, delivered with care and unequalled expertise. Its full-service online assessment tool and professional services help customers to improve their performance and meet their compliance requirements. Questionmark enables organizations to unlock their potential by delivering assessments which are valid, reliable, fair and defensible.
Questionmark offers secure powerful integration with other LMS, LRS and proctoring services making it easy to bring everything together in one place. Questionmark's cloud-based assessment management platform offers rapid deployment, scalability for high-volume test delivery, 24/7 support, and the peace-of-mind of secure, audited U.S., Australian and European-based data centers.
Read More
EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Instructure Holdings, Inc. | November 09, 2021
Instructure Holdings, Inc. (Instructure) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Kimono, a leader in cloud-based data integration and interoperability for education. A long-time partner, and preferred integration solution of Canvas LMS, Kimono will be rebranded as Elevate Data Sync as it joins the Instructure Learning Platform. Elevate Data Sync is a solution built specifically for education that enables secure syncing of student, staff, and learning data across applications within a school environment.
"The acquisition underscores Instructure's vision of building education's most integrated platform and demonstrates our deep commitment to openness. We want to give schools the freedom of choice to connect with their preferred applications. By incorporating Kimono's adaptable, cloud-based integration and interoperability solution as Elevate Data Sync, we strengthen our ability to more seamlessly connect users with the applications they love."
Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure
Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the team at Kimono has over 20 years of experience developing integration solutions for K-12 and higher education. The company serves six state education agencies, over 2300 districts, 27,000 schools and universities, and more than 16 million students globally.
The move extends Instructure's learning data integration and rostering capabilities for student information systems (SIS). With bi-directional sharing, Elevate Data Sync ensures data, grades, and rosters stay synchronized between edtech applications and student information systems (SIS). Schools ensure the accuracy, security, and accessibility with complete control of their integrations—sharing only the data elements they choose and only with the applications they authorize. Because Elevate Data Sync is standards-agnostic, it supports industry-standard data models and protocols—such as OneRoster, LIS, SIF, APIs, and CSV—and also offers the flexibility to meet needs of schools and applications.
"We developed an adaptable, cloud-based platform that is the most comprehensive education interoperability solution available," said Steve Curtis, CEO of Kimono. "Adding that technology to the Instructure Learning Platform will accelerate Instructure's plans to provide broad support and deeper integration points to the platform for thousands of edtech providers globally. As a result, schools and higher education institutions will be further empowered to craft the digital learning environment that meets the unique needs of their students."
The Instructure Learning Platform is an open, reliable, and extensible learning ecosystem enabling a digital learning environment for educators, students, and institutions. The platform is made up of several key pillars—such as learning management, assessment, and analytics —that work together to enrich, support, and connect every aspect of teaching and learning. Elevate Data Sync will be a vital part of the platform, driving interoperability and ease of use.
ABOUT INSTRUCTURE
Instructure is an education technology company dedicated to elevating student success, amplifying the power of teaching, and inspiring everyone to learn together. Today the Instructure Learning Platform supports more than 30 million educators and learners around the world.
Read More