After raising $100 million With a valuation of more than $2 billion last year, Australian edtech startup go1 is making an acquisition and getting some investment to expand its reach and technology to serve the corporate online learning market.
First, it’s closing intermittenta Berlin startup that had created a platform for discovering and reading abridged versions of longer non-fiction books: “Blinks” that typically take no more than 15 minutes to read or listen to.
Second, while the two companies are not disclosing the financial terms of the acquisition, we have confirmed other details with Go1 co-CEO and founder Andrew Barnes: the acquisition is a combination of cash and stock. And it will also involve Blinkist’s biggest investor, information partnerstaking an additional $30 million in equity in Go1 in a “round up”, but again without discussing the exact numbers.
The two platforms will continue to operate separately, but over time, the plan is for further integration and cross-selling between the two, the companies said. It will also work to bring new streams in technology to influence the broader platform, such as incorporating more AI into Blinkist’s text digest process and, leveraging Blinkist’s app format, providing a broader range of options for teach courses to Go1. users
“B2B has been our bread and butter, something that Blinkist had just started to move into,” Barnes said in an interview. But on the other hand, he pointed out that “Blinkist has a very high user engagement”, something that Go1 wants to improve on his app. “Uswe resolved last year that what we want to do had already been done, and we had done what they wanted to do.”
Blinkist has had 25 million downloads of its app and has just under 1 million paying users, including some 1,500 businesses. Go1 — which is backed by companies like Salesforce and Microsoft, but also Softbank, says it has 8 million users, with big clients like Delta, Hays, Westpac and energy giant EDF, using its e-learning platform, which provides a curated catalog of training and professional training. development courses, tens of thousands in all.
The last Blinkist rating was $160 million in 2018when it raised $18.8 million and the company is “significantly bigger” than it was then, Barnes said.
The reason Blinkist hasn’t re-financed in the last five years is because it hasn’t had to: the company is growing and profitable, and still has money left in the bank, according to Holger Seim, CEO and Co-Founder of Blinkist. It had raised just over $37 million, for Sales book datawith backers other than Insight including Left Lane Capital, T-Ventures and more.
The Berlin startup has had a variety of potential buyers knocking on its door over the years, Seim said in a separate interview. Blinkist’s catalog is a mix of audio and text-based content, making it an interesting asset for tech companies, publishers or media brands that have tried to develop larger eBook operations, business user strategies or even larger media shares for both areas. like podcasting.
“But there was never anything before Go1 that seemed like a good fit,” Seim said.
Blinkist and Go1 are in areas worth watching in the coming years, particularly because of how, or Yeahif you’re more skeptical, they’ll be disrupted with advances in areas like AI.
One field would have you believe that both e-learning and reading (and particularly reading summaries) will be nullified as generative AI gets stronger. Personalization will produce content tailored to people’s specific needs, whether in terms of what they need to learn, want to learn, or have time to learn.
However, Seim is far from worried about this. “We see generative AI as a great opportunity,” he said. He noted that even before the launch of ChatGPT, “you could find a book summary on Google. Key ideas have always been a commodity.”
But something is still missing from those shots, he continued. “We are not a library, but a smart partner to make learning a part of your life. The content needs to be engaging and entertaining, and you need to be recommended the right thing at the right time to keep going. There is more than the content itself.”
Blinkist is already using AI to create recommendation algorithms, but in the future, it could help the startup’s very human workforce of people who are creating resumes, helping them work faster and at lower cost. The startup is already testing elements of this, he said. “We just have to make sure that GPT can work at scale,” adding that this hasn’t been foolproof so far.
Given Blinkist’s status as profitable and growing, this deal is likely not part of the M&A trend we’ve seen in tech over the past six months, where there’s been an uptick in smaller deals as arrived a wave of new companies. at the end of their funding tracks and found conditions too challenging to raise more money. What it does open up, though, are questions about what the next step for the bigger Go1 will be.
Backed by Softbank’s Vision Fund in its halcyon days, the funding and exit market for larger and later-stage tech companies has been pretty tough over the past six months. Barnes said an initial public offering was part of the long-term plan, but “it’s not something we’re heading towards right now.”
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