Mergers & Acquisitions

Teachers Pay Teachers Buys Bakpax Automated Grading Platform, Will Add to TPT's Easel

• By Kristal Kuykendall
• 03/08/22

Teachers Pay Teachers, a learning resources platform used by 85% of U.S. teachers, announced today it has acquired Bakpax, a browser-based tool that reads students’ handwritten and text submissions and grades assignments in seconds.

The Bakpax technology will be integrated with TPT’s Easel platform, according to a news release. Easel provides educators with 5 million teacher-created lessons and interactive classroom and instructional tools.

Bakpax’s AI technology streamlines the grading process by instantly grading assignments and converting the content to a digital format, TPT said. Bakpax also provides performance insights such as highlighting topics that are easier or more challenging for students, showing teachers where students need the most help.

“Bakpax and TPT share the important goal of helping time-starved teachers save time. We have millions of teachers using digital resources on TPT, and automated grading features can free them up to focus on students’ individual learning needs,” Teachers Pay Teachers CEO Joe Holland said.

“Anyone who knows teachers, knows they crave more quality time with students over administrative work,” said Jose Ferreira, co-founder of Bakpax. “It's a wonderful feeling to know our autograding technology can help the millions of teachers on TPT get the most out of their interactive lessons with students.”

Bakpax said in a statement on its website that access for teachers using its website will end on May 4, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. At that time, the Bakpax website will shut down and all user data will be deleted, the company said: “After Bakpax has been shut down on May 4, your student work will be deleted with your account data. Please contact us at [email protected] before June 4 if you would like assistance with exporting your data (including student information associated with your account).”

TPT serves more than 7 million educators around the world — including 85% of PreK–12 teachers in the United States, the company said — and its educator resources are downloaded over 1 million times a day. Terms of the acquisition of Bakpax were not disclosed.

Learn more at TeachersPayTeachers.com.