Education data management solutions maker STI recently acquired Chalkable, an education-focused app store. Announcing the acquisition on its website, the 30 year-old company's acquisition intends to capitalize the growing need of educational technology products in K-12 schools.
STI's acquisition of Chalkable resulted to all nine members of the app store being absorbed by the data management solutions company, and retained the startup's chief executive officer and chief operating officer Michael Levy and Zoli Honig as board directors of STI's new Chalkable unit. According to a source knowledgeable with the transaction, Chalkable's product will be kept by STI and will be consolidated with technology from STI's other acquisitions pipeline and the company's SIS product iNow. This, said the source, will provide STI a new, modern product. TechCrunch noted that the move for Chalkable to be combined with STI's acquisitions was unheard of in typical startup purchases.
Also, STI's acquisition also led to the appointment of a new CEO and COO in the person of Derek Dunaway, who had years of K-12 education and technology companies experience to help lead the company. Although STI did not disclose the amount it paid for Chalkable, TechCrunch heard from its sources that the former shelled out USD10 million and may be set to put up more capital to boost the company's talent pool.
Dunaway said, "STI is continuously searching for ways to bring state-of-the-art education tools to our students, teachers and parents. The tools available through the Chalkable platform will increase the access our students have to highly relevant educational content and allow teachers to personalize instruction through customized apps that are recommended for each student's level of learning."
Chalkable was a graduate of accelerator 500 Startups and had launched in September 2012. Prior to its acquisition, Chalkable was said to have served over 50 educational institutions both as an app store and as a learning management system. Chalkable received earlier backing totaling USD1.3 million from 500 Startups, Expansion Venture Capital and Great Oaks Venture Capital. It also received investment in the initial funding round from former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelley and former Facebook mobile platform lead, Luke Shepard, among other investors.
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