No stranger to acquisitions in recent years, Instructure, maker of the Canvas K-12 learning management system and other education software tools, is buying another competitor for its prowess in digital credentials and e-transcripts.
According to a recent press release, Instructure Holdings has entered into an agreement to acquire Parchment, which has processed more than 165 million credential requests on behalf of more than 15,000 learning and training institutions in the United States and five other English-speaking nations over the past two decades.
The purchase price for Parchment was $795 million, and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.
“By adding Parchment to the Instructure Learning Platform, we will provide a verifiable and comprehensive digital passport of achievement records and outcomes for students,” Instructure CEO Steve Daly said in a public statement. “Together, we’re expanding the Instructure platform for existing customers, welcoming new Parchment customers, and opening new avenues for growth with several new solution categories.”
This marks the company’s ninth acquisition in six years, according to Crunchbase, following last year’s purchases of LearnPlatform for evaluating new technologies and Concentric Sky for micro-credentialing, plus other tools for educational video, technology adoption, curriculum, compliance and data interoperability. Earlier this year, Instructure also partnered with education data firm K16 Solutions to help its clients archive data and with Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management to enroll more women in business programs.
According to its website, Parchment helped pioneer the process of delivering electronic high school transcripts to college admissions offices in 2003, then partnered with career and education-ready software company Naviance in 2012 to expand e-transcript services to colleges and universities. professional organizations and licensing boards. In 2014, the company launched the Parchment Learner Profile to help students research and compare institutions of higher learning, and in 2021 it merged with another credentialing company, Digitary, to expand its services to Canada, Australia, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. And earlier this year, Parchment launched Pathways, which offers tools for more complicated situations such as dual enrollment at multiple institutions, course sharing and transferring academic credits or certifications to other schools, according to its website.
With the addition of Parchment, officials from both companies said Instructure will have a better set of solutions to connect students to future academic, training and employment opportunities.
“Parchment’s mission is to help turn credentials into opportunity. With this combination, we will dramatically expand credentials to include rich data and more evidence of skills and learning,” Parchment CEO Matthew Pittinsky said in a public statement. “The seamless experience we envision for students will provide easier and more equitable access to the educational and employment opportunities they seek as they build their lifelong learning record.”