Ed Tech Acquisitions
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.