Kahoot! Acquiring Clever

In a transaction valued at up to $500 million, ed tech company Kahoot! is acquiring Clever, which provides one of the most ubiquitous services in education IT.

Kahoot! is the maker of the popular education apps used at home and in formal education environments. Kahoot! and Kahoot! EDU are the company’s primary offering for K–12 schools. Kahoot! EDU provides interactive lessons, collaboration, sharing, groups, analytics and other features for schools beyond the consumer edition.

Clever provides a single sign-in portal, roster syncing and other services used by more than 89,000 individual schools in the United States — representing about 65% of K–12 school districts and half of all U.S. preK–12 students. Clever’s single sign-on portal has been free for districts from the start. Clever makes its money through agreements with application developers who use its services. Clever has 600 such developer agreements in place, including a recent deal with Google, as well as companies like Zoom, McGraw Hill and Khan Academy. Those partnerships gave Clever revenues of $44 million in 2020.

According to information released by Kahoot! today, Clever will continue to “offer free as well as premium offerings to all user groups.”

According to Kahoot!, the aim of the acquisition is to provide “complementary digital solutions that make learning more efficient, effective and awesome for everyone. Clever will also integrate Kahoot!´s family of learning apps onto its platform, enhancing distribution channels for Kahoot! and enabling efficient implementation via Clever APIs to millions of students and teachers in U.S. K-12 schools.”

"We founded Clever because we believed that technology can be a powerful lever to make learning more joyful and engaging — and no one embodies that more than Kahoot!," said Tyler Bosmeny, CEO and co-founder of Clever, in a statement released today. "Being part of the Kahoot! family will give us the opportunity to not only continue our mission, but to accelerate our plans to serve international markets. We are inspired to be a part of Kahoot! Group and excited to work with Eilert and the team to unlock the opportunities ahead for schools around the globe."

"Today's announcement marks a milestone in Kahoot!'s mission to make learning awesome. Clever and Kahoot! are two purpose-led organizations that are equally passionate about education and unleashing the potential within every learner," said Eilert Hanoa, CEO at Kahoot!, in a prepared statement. "Through this acquisition we see considerable potential to collaborate on education innovation to better service all our users — schools, teachers, students, parents and lifelong learners — and leveraging our global scale to offer Clever's unique platform worldwide. I'm excited to welcome Tyler and his team to the Kahoot! Family. 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.”

According to Kahoot!, the company will acquire 100% of Clever, which will be “wholly owned by the Kahoot! Group upon closing of the transaction. Clever will remain an open platform and continue to operate under the Clever brand. Clever Inc. will operate as an independent company in the Kahoot! Group, led by its strong management team.”

The acquisition is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2021, pending regulatory approval and other “customary closing conditions,” according to information released by the companies. Kahoot! will host an online meeting about the acquitision May 19.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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