- Education technology company Kahoot! announced recently that it is buying Clever in a deal valued up to $500 million. These are the details.
Kahoot, an Oslo-based education technology company, announced recently that it is acquiring Clever – which is a privately held California-based digital learning platform company for K-12 schools in a deal valued up to $500 million.
As part of the deal, Kahoot! Group will buy 100% of the shares in Clever for an enterprise value (EV) of $435 – $500 million on a cash and debt-free basis, including a performance-based element for 2021-2022. And the consideration will consist of a combination of cash and Kahoot! shares.
Clever will be wholly owned by the Kahoot! Group upon closing of the transaction. And Clever will remain an open platform and continue to operate under the Clever brand. Clever is going to operate as an independent company in the Kahoot! Group, led by its strong management team.
Launched in 2012, Clever’s market-leading and open platform brings schools, teachers, students and application developers together in a single-sign-on education network that simplifies accessible learning and provides an easy go-to solution for all users.
Clever integrates student and teacher workflow through a marketplace, portal, and API-based user management and single-sign-on experience – consistent with Kahoot!’s content-agnostic, digital-first education approach. And with Clever, students get a digital classroom with all the resources they need to login and start learning. Teachers are able to create personalized and organized digital classrooms and can see which students are participating, and instantly reach out to students who need help — all without leaving the platform.
Clever offers its platform free of charge to schools and school districts. And last year, the company served 50% of all U.S. students in over 89,000 schools – representing 65% of the 13,000+ school districts and engaged over 20 million students monthly, delivering 5.6 billion learning sessions. Clever has partnered with 600 application developers, including many of the leading U.S and global learning providers, like Khan Academy, McGraw Hill, Zoom, and also recently announced its new partnership with Google Classroom.
Clever is expecting to reach $44 million in billed revenues for 2021 from its U.S. ecosystem partners, following an annual revenue growth rate of approximately 25% CAGR in the last three years, running the business on a cash flow neutral basis, redeploying all cash into the development of its offerings. And with offices in San Francisco, CA and Durham, NC, Clever has a talent force of more than 175 people with deep education and technology expertise.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. 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.”
— Eilert Hanoa, CEO at Kahoot!
“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. 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.”
— Tyler Bosmeny, CEO and co-founder of Clever
