Don Johnston Incorporated Joins Texthelp Group; Edtech Giants Join Forces to Help Students Across North America and the Globe
WOBURN, Mass., Jan. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Texthelp, a worldwide chief in literacy and accessibility know-how, immediately introduced that they are going to purchase the Education Technology Division of Don Johnston Inc., a number one assistive know-how and particular schooling curriculum firm primarily based exterior of Chicago, IL. Don Johnston Inc. is the newest Assistive Technology supplier to be part of the Texthelp Group. Following Five Arrows’ funding in December 2020, Texthelp acquired Lingit Group and Wizkids in 2021, increasing the firm’s attain in the Nordics and the UK. Texthelp’s aim is to use its assistive know-how to assist 1 billion folks with studying, writing, and numeracy by 2030. Together with Don Johnston Inc.’s main SaaS-based merchandise, the Texthelp Group will change into the world chief in assistive know-how instruments for lecture rooms and workplaces. The phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
One in ten folks have dyslexia, and in the US, 12% of scholars are in particular schooling, 15% of kids in school are studying their 2nd language, and the common studying age is seventh to eighth grade. Using assistive instruments has been confirmed to assist college students overcome these obstacles and harness their distinctive strengths. Both Texthelp and Don Johnston Inc. have made it their mission to assist equality and inclusion of all folks, particularly people with dyslexia and different studying wants. Together, Texthelp and Don Johnston Inc. will proceed to provide their full suite of merchandise, and clients will see the good thing about collaborative know-how innovation between the corporations inside the first few weeks. Don Johnston Inc.’s curriculum division will type a brand new firm, named Building Wings™, which incorporates the merchandise Readtopia® and First Author®.
“Texthelp and Don Johnston Inc. share a common vision of a world where every student can feel what it is like to learn and succeed,” mentioned Martin McKay, CEO and founding father of Texthelp. “Don and I founded our organizations for deeply personal reasons. We have an incredibly similar mission to elevate as many students as possible, helping them both understand and be understood. We are so excited to have Don Johnston Inc. join the Texthelp Group, and to have Don as an investor and board member. Our combined teams and expanded portfolio of products will allow us to give millions more students in the US and across the globe the best possible start in life and help them fulfill their full potential. Along with the Don Johnston team, we will continue to innovate and develop our suite of products to create the best assistive technology tools available.”
For greater than 40 years, Don Johnston Inc. has developed know-how instruments and curriculum which have helped college students and educators construct literacy abilities. The firm’s assist and accessible know-how is designed to accommodate youngsters and adults with particular wants and studying disabilities. Since its inception, Don Johnston Inc. has helped over 32,000 colleges via applied sciences, implementation, and private connections.
“Don Johnston Inc. and Texthelp have worked in parallel in the edtech sector for decades. We share so many commonalities,” mentioned Don Johnston, CEO of Don Johnston Inc. “Fundamentally, we are both unified by a mission to help as many students as possible learn and succeed. I strongly believe that together we can achieve more, and I am excited to see what the future holds. My new role on the board of the Texthelp Group will allow me to continue to drive forward our shared vision. This is also an opportunity for our curriculum tools to forge their own path as a new organization, Building Wings. I am passionate about the role curriculum has to play in helping students, and I will maintain a leadership position with Building Wings as CEO.”
Texthelp and Don Johnston Inc. will work collectively to increase product innovation and assist many extra folks fulfill their potential, starting in lecture rooms and extending via to the office. The two organizations will mix their groups and merchandise to create the finest know-how out there to college students, educators, and staff. Texthelp will add Don Johnston’s Snap&Read™, Co:Writer®, Word Bank™, Quizbot® and uPAR™ instruments to its suite of merchandise and all staff of Don Johnston’s Education Technology Division will change into Texthelp staff.
To view Texthelp and Don Johnston’s joint assertion, go to https://text.help/DJI-joins-Texthelp.
About Texthelp
Founded in 1996, the Texthelp Group is a worldwide know-how firm. On a day by day foundation, it helps folks throughout the world to perceive and to be understood. For the final three a long time, it has led the means in creating progressive schooling and office know-how. Texthelp believes in a world the place distinction, incapacity, or language are now not obstacles. It is concentrated on serving to all folks be taught, perceive, and talk via the use of digital literacy and accessibility software program. With over 50 million customers worldwide, the Texthelp suite of merchandise consists of Read&Write, EquatIO®, WriQ®, Fluency Tutor®, ReachDeck®, and SpeechStream®. These instruments work alongside current platforms resembling Microsoft Office and G-suite. This permits for its merchandise to be rapidly built-in into any classroom or office with ease. Visit www.texthelp.com for extra data.
About Don Johnston Inc.
Since 1980, Don Johnston Inc. has been a staple of the accessibility neighborhood, partnering with literacy specialists, AT specialists, SLPs, OTs, and particular schooling administrators to develop widespread assistive and evaluative instruments together with Co:Writer®, Snap&Read™, uPAR®, Word Bank™ and Quizbot®. Students throughout North America with dyslexia, autism, dysgraphia, and different various studying challenges depend on Don Johnston Inc. assistive instruments each day to accommodate their studying wants in colleges and at dwelling. Education isn’t the finish of the transformation, it’s solely the starting. Don Johnston Inc. instruments open up prospects proper via the schooling journey and into the office. Visit https://learningtools.donjohnston.com/ for extra data.
About Five Arrows
Five Arrows Principal Investments (FAPI) and Five Arrows Capital Partners (FACP) (collectively, “Five Arrows”) are the European and US company non-public fairness arms, respectively, of Rothschild & Co’s Merchant Banking enterprise. Five Arrows is concentrated on investing in middle-market corporations with extremely defensible market positions; robust administration groups; enterprise fashions with excessive visibility of natural unit quantity progress and robust free money stream conversion; and a number of operational levers that can be utilized to unlock latent worth. The sector focus at Five Arrows is proscribed to healthcare, information & software program and technology-enabled enterprise providers.
For extra data please go to: https://www.rothschildandco.com/en/merchant-banking/corporate-private-equity.
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