Strategic Investment in AI Platform
New York, NY (USA), March 2024 – Education technology provider Avallain has reaffirmed its commitment to responsible generative AI and innovation in education with a number of key announcements.
Avallain, a twenty year veteran of innovative and impactful edtech, has acquired TeacherMatic, one of Europe's fastest-growing generative AI toolsets for educators. The acquisition supports Avallain's broader AI strategy, which includes remediation and copyright protection, both features developed for its highly respected content creation tool Avallain Author.
The Avallain product suite already enables publishers to use the full breadth of the best generative AI, while meeting educational, legal, and commercial requirements. TeacherMatic has, over the last year, developed and organised one of the most complete AI toolsets to support educators globally, allowing everything from lesson plans and flashcards to schemes of work and multiple choice quizzes - alignable to curricula - at the click of a few buttons. This coming together of TeacherMatic and Avallain forms the basis of a strong partnership of leading-edge and ethical capability applying generative AI for education.
Ursula Suter, Co-Founder and Executive Chairwoman at Avallain, says "We see this joining of forces with TeacherMatic as a crucial step to counter the main risks from generative AI, while also benefiting educators and education in general in a manner that will cater to high-quality educational publishing and learning outcomes. For many years we have been delivering grounded and considered educational innovation. With TeacherMatic, we will continue to do that and more. Our product suite achieves both high-quality education and commercial viability with success for all parties involved."
Peter Kilcoyne, MD at TeacherMatic comments, "TeacherMatic was formed by a group of lifelong educators with the aim of making generative AI available and accessible to all teaching staff to help reduce workloads and improve creativity. We are delighted to have been acquired by Avalllain, whose expertise and experience in terms of both education and technology will greatly enhance our future developments, improve TeacherMatic as a platform, as well as engage with new markets around the world. We see the ethical, technical, and educational principles that drive both Avallain and TeacherMatic make this a partnership that will benefit both organisations, as well as our customers and all teachers and students in organisations that we support."
In an additional announcement, Professor Rose Luckin has been appointed to the advisory board of Avallain. Rosemary (Rose) Luckin is a Professor at University College London and Founder of Educate Ventures Research (EVR) who has spent over 30 years developing and studying AI for education. She is renowned for her research into the design and evaluation of educational technology and AI.
Rose comments, "Avallain has, for many years, been the quality engine of education for publishers and content providers. I am delighted to support them and provide guidance and direction for Avallain's products as we step forward into this exciting era of AI in education"
Finally, Avallain also officially announced the Avallain Lab, with John Traxler as Academic Director. Traxler holds Chairs from the Commonwealth of Learning for innovations in higher education and from UNESCO for Innovative Informal Digital Learning in Disadvantaged and Development Contexts. The Avallain Lab was incubated in 2023 with a remit to provide research and rigour around product development for partners covering everything from learner analytics and accessibility to ethical AI applicability for learners. The Lab will support Avallain's current partners and operate commercially in partnership with other institutions in exploring innovation in educational contexts. Furthermore, the Lab welcomes global collaborators.
Avallain's announcements build upon its established commitment to ethical generative AI, which is already available for Avallain Author, its renowned content authoring tool and its newly launched SaaS Learning Management System (LMS), Avallain Magnet. Current clients can leverage new tools that can automate parts of the editorial workflow while leaving editors and learning designers firmly in control of the process.