Emmersion Learning, a Utah-based language assessment technology company, has announced this week that it has raised $2.4 million in funding and acquired Perpetual Technology Group. Perpetual Technology Group is the official licensee of WebCAPE.
Perpetual Technology Group Acquisition
WebCAPE is the worldwide standard for language placement testing and it has saved the education industry millions of dollars by offering a reliable and affordable exam for test reading, grammar, and vocabulary skills. WebCAPE was originally developed by Brigham Young University in 1992 and it was licensed in 2004 by Perpetual Technology Group and now serves over 600 institutions worldwide in seven languages.
“The industry has been anxiously awaiting the automated capability of testing all areas of language ability using machine learning and artificial intelligence,” said David Przybyla, the company owner of Perpetual Technology Group and a marketing professor at Utah Valley University. “We have many customers excited to advance their placement process with the new integrations.”
A couple of years ago, Emmersion announced the release of TrueNorth Test, which is a fully automated language speaking assessment. The TrueNorth Test technology was developed by Emmersion Learning co-founder Jacob Burdis, PhD.
“We are excited to push the limits of technology in language assessment,” added Dr. Burdis, “by infusing machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to improve the validity and reliability of our assessments.”
Joe Tomco, CEO and co-founder of Emmersion Learning, explained that the company is confident that with their “combined industry experience and dedicated team of developers, engineers, and psychometricians, we will greatly improve the ability to accurately assess language learners throughout the world.”
$2.4 Million Second Round Of Funding
Imagen Capital Partners led the $2.4 million equity funding round in Emmersion Learning. And additional major existing investors also participated.
This new funding round will be used to support Emmersion’s plan to expand its existing language learning platform and explore new offerings that caters to the academic and corporate markets. Plus Emmersion is going to use the funding to accelerate R&D hiring.
“Emmersion has developed a unique and innovative solution, which is well positioned to be a driving force in global language learning assessments,” commented Imagen Capital Partners Managing Director Chris Barrow. “We look forward to working more closely with the management team as they continue to build a dynamic and scalable platform to address this demand throughout the growing EdTech industry.”
