Instructure Holdings, an education technology startup that provides cloud services to educators, has announced the acquisition of the cloud-based integration and interoperability platform and long-time partner Kimono for an undisclosed amount.
With the acquisition, Instructure, the owner of the leading Canvas LMS, will rebrand Kimono as Elevate Data Sync as it joins the Instructure Learning Platform.
This technology enables secure syncing of student, staff, and learning data across applications within a school environment.
The move extends Instructure’s learning data integration and rostering capabilities between edtech applications and student information systems (SIS).
Founded in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley, Utah-based startup delivers the elements that leaders, teachers, and learners need- a next-generation Learning Management System (LMS), robust assessments for learning, actionable analytics and engaging, dynamic content.
Instructure’s mission is to elevate student success, amplify the power of teachers everywhere, and inspire everyone to learn together by applying the power of simple, purposeful, and transformative software to the important challenge of educating the world’s population.
Talking about the acquisition, CEO of Instructure, Steve Daly, said, “The acquisition underscores Instructure’s vision of building education’s most integrated platform and demonstrates our deep commitment to openness. We want to give schools the freedom of choice to connect with their preferred applications.”
Kimono was established in 2012 and based in Salt Lake City, is standards-agnostic. It supports industry-standard data models and protocols, such as OneRoster, LIS, SIF, APIs, and CSV, driving interoperability and ease of use. The platform provides an intuitive, cloud-based experience for education data integration, enabling the secure bi-directorial exchange of student and staff data in real-time.
The startup serves six state education agencies, over 2300 districts, 27,000 schools and universities, and over 16 million students globally.
Instructure had raised a $40 million round from a group of investors led by Insight Venture Partners, with the participation from other investors including OpenView Venture Partners, based in Massachusetts, and EPIC Ventures, a Utah investor.
