Image credit: Kahoot!
Kahoot!, the publicly traded, game-based learning company announced last
week the acquisition of Clever Inc., a privately
held, San Francisco-based company that is one of the most widely used digital
learning platforms by U.S. K-12 schools. The partnership between two of the
most popular platforms in education, with distinct and complementary offerings,
is expected to accelerate Kahoot!’s global consolidation and expansion.
Kahoot! will acquire 100pc of Clever for an enterprise value (EV) between $435m and $500m, dependent on targets. The acquisition – Kahoot!’s seventh in two years - will unite two major players in education technology. Founded in 2012, Clever claims to have served half of all U.S. students in 2020, with a footprint in 89,000 schools, representing 65 percent of the nation’s 13,000 school districts.
The deal
provides a significant pathway for Kahoot! to bolster its presence in
the US market.
In the last 12 months, 279 million games have been played on the Kahoot! platform with 1.6 billion participating players in more than 200 countries. The Kahoot! family also includes award-winning DragonBox math learning apps, the Poio learn to read app, the Drops language learning apps, the Actimo and Motimate employee engagement and corporate platforms and Whiteboard.fi, the online whiteboard tool for all educators, teachers and classrooms.
Kahoot!'s vision is to build the
leading learning platform in the world.
“In the same
way as we are improving our offerings with Kahoot! at Work towards
enterprises with Kahoot! Spirit and our acquisitions of Actimo and
Motimate, the acquisition of Clever will strengthen our offerings towards
schools, districts and families in Kahoot! at School and Kahoot! at
Home," said Eilert Hanoa, CEO at Kahoot!. He said
more acquisitions or joint ventures could help accelerate Kahoot!’s
growth even further.
Last October, Kahoot!
sold a near 10pc stake in the company to Japanese tech and investment giant
SoftBank for $215m. The Norwegian edtech, which also counts Microsoft and
Disney as large shareholders, is currently valued at $6bn with the vast
majority of its $45m in invoiced revenue last year coming from North America
and Europe.
Kahoot! is hoping to double its revenues this year and then again to
$200m by 2023, as it adds more services to its platform.
From
Crunchbase
Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that makes it easy to create, share, and play fun learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes. The platform offers learning games in minutes for any subject, in any language, on any device, and for all ages. Based on the mission of making learning awesome, Kahoot!’s game-based platform engages the heart, hand, and mind, creating a wildly more social, meaningful, and powerful pedagogical experience. Kahoot!’s platform and easy-to-use features attract educators and students as well as corporate powerhouses, sporting, and cultural events.
In 2012, co-founders Alf Inge Wang, Asmund Furuseth, Jamie Brooker, Johan Brand, and Morten Versvik established the company in Oslo, Norway.