Brook Portfolio Company Certica Solutions Acquires Educuity

WAKEFIELD, Mass., August 5, 2016 – Certica Solutions (Certica), provider of the Certica Connect™ education technology Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), today announced that it has acquired Educuity, experts in the delivery of Ed-Fi® services, technology and data architecture for state and local education agencies. The acquisition strengthens the data element of the Certica Connect platform and accelerates the growth of Educuity’s Ed-Fi services.

The Ed-Fi Data Standard and technology components, developed and licensed by the non-profit Ed-Fi Alliance, headquartered in Austin, Texas, enable educators and education technology companies to achieve integration and interoperability between education data systems, and create applications and processes to improve student outcomes. Educuity, also based in Austin, Texas, has a strong history with Ed-Fi, the company’s principals having contributed significantly to the development of the Ed-Fi Data Standard and technology assets since its inception.

The Educuity acquisition is the latest addition to the Certica Connect platform, which gives education technology companies, publishers and application providers the means to efficiently expand and enhance their K-12 systems, products and offerings. The Certica Connect platform provides a cloud-based storage repository for three foundational elements – education data, metadata and content – and a collection of enabling services and APIs which support enrichment, access and integration of those elements. With Educuity onboard at Certica, the Ed-Fi Data Standard will become the centralized, standards-based data model for Certica Connect’s data storage, integration and interoperability capabilities.

In addition to its education technology platform, Certica’s data and compliance software applications are used by over 500 school districts, charter schools and educational services agencies. The acquisition of Educuity will further expand Certica’s ability to reach local and state education agencies with a range of management consulting services, SaaS applications and APIs. In addition to its two lines of business, Partner Solutions and Data and Compliance Solutions, Certica will now establish a State Solutions line of business. Ed Comer, co-founder and president of Educuity, will head Certica’s new business, as vice president, State Solutions. Co-founder Geoff McElhanon will join Certica as a chief software architect within the Software Products team.

The past eighteen months have seen two other strategic additions to the evolving Certica Connect platform, with the joining of Academic Benchmarks in February 2016; and the acquisition of item banking technology and the Formative Assessment Item Bank™ from the Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA) in February 2015. These acquisitions have allowed Certica to seed the metadata and content elements, respectively, of the Certica Connect platform, and benefit from the addition of significant expertise in these areas.

Said Mark Rankovic, Certica’s president and CEO, “we are thrilled to welcome Educuity to the Certica family. We have been following Educuity and know of their reputation and history with the Ed-Fi community. The Educuity team brings unparalleled expertise in the field of Ed-Fi data management and has delivered more than 18 Ed-Fi implementations with state and local education agencies. Our company’s focus on K-12 data integration and infrastructure, as well as application interoperability, puts Educuity right in our sweet spot, in terms of how we can leverage Educuity’s tremendous talent and broaden the reach of Educuity’s service and technology delivery.”

Ed Comer, co-founder and president of Educuity said “we have been impressed with Certica’s vision and position in the K-12 market, and felt this marriage made good strategic sense. We are excited to be joining the Certica team, where we will be able to reach a broader set of states and school districts, helping to make every level of the education process more efficient and effective in improving student outcomes.”

About Certica Solutions
Certica Solutions is the provider of Certica Connect™, the K-12 market’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), which gives education technology companies and publishers the means to efficiently expand and enhance their K-12 offerings and integrate with other industry solutions and content, via a cloud-based storage repository and a collection of enabling services and APIs. Additionally, Certica provides content, compliance and data solutions which enable education organizations to improve instructional and organizational performance. Certica partners with a diverse network of education technology companies and publishers, and also delivers solutions directly to over 500 school districts, charter schools and educational service agencies. Certica is supported by New Harbor Capital, a Chicago-based, growth-focused private equity firm and Wakefield-based Brook Venture Partners. Certica is based in Wakefield, Massachusetts and has additional offices in Harvard, Massachusetts; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Austin, Texas.

About Educuity
Educuity partners with state and local education agencies to effectively apply Ed-Fi® technology, an education data standard and tool suite, to modernize data infrastructures, deploy data dashboards and visualizations, and implement data-driven education processes that improve student outcomes. Founded by the original author of the Ed-Fi data standard and the chief architect for the Ed-Fi technologies, Educuity has extensive experience in assisting education agencies with assessing, planning and executing their Ed-Fi strategy and implementation. The company is based in Austin, Texas.