Washington, DC (USA), July 2022 - Class Technologies Inc., a leader in synchronous virtual learning, has announced its closing on the acquisition of Blackboard Collaborate. Prior to the acquisition by Class, Blackboard Collaborate was part of the Anthology product suite, following Anthology's merger with Blackboard last year.
Blackboard Collaborate will now be known as Class Collaborate. Customers can expect that both Class and Class Collaborate will operate business as usual. As previously announced, Class will continue full support of Class Collaborate and Class for Zoom for over 1,750 institutions representing higher education, K-12, and corporate learning and development teams around the world.
"We are excited to welcome Collaborate customers and team members to Class," said Michael Chasen, co-founder and CEO of Class. "Educators and learners expect innovative and advanced solutions that enhance the online and hybrid learning experience. With this combination, we've brought together the industry's leading educators and technologists to meet this expectation and deliver the next generation of online learning."
Driven by its shared vision to deliver the next generation platform for hybrid, hyflex, and online learning, Class and Anthology will also partner to build tight integration between Blackboard Learn and Class to promote student success. The long-term vision is to bring together the best of both products to develop a learning platform that can support the various ways in which institutions want to engage in synchronous learning now and into the future.
"Anthology's partnership with Class creates new opportunities for our clients to improve learning outcomes and experiences for their students," said Jim Milton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Anthology. "Institutions are preparing to meet learner needs as they continue to shift in the years ahead. A flexible virtual learning environment that's rooted in data and proven pedagogical methods is exactly what they need to help their faculty and students succeed long term."
Under the transaction, Class will be the preferred virtual meeting technology partner for Blackboard. The two teams are working closely together on joint go-to-market initiatives, including a large presence at the upcoming Anthology Together conference in Orlando, Florida.
Class raised a combination of equity and debt from new and existing investors to finance the acquisition, including SoftBank Vision Fund 2; Insight Partners; Salesforce Ventures; Owl Ventures; Emergence Capital; Educational Testing Services (ETS); Arizona State University (ASU); Maven Ventures; Revolution's Rise of the Rest Fund; SWaN & Legend; Chimera Investment; Sound Ventures; Catalysis Capital Management; Guy Oseary; Bill Tai; and Super Bowl champion and entrepreneur Tom Brady.
