Danish edtech CanopyLAB acquires Peruvian publishing startup YoPublico to serve rapidly expanding userbase in Latin America.
Danish edtech CanopyLAB is behind a social and adaptive learning platform that is being used in more than 85 different countries.
By Esben Trier
Based on co-founder Sahra-Josephine Hjorth’s Ph.D. research at the University of Aalborg, CanopyLAB launched its product in late 2018 with a focus on corporate learning. With COVID-19 CanopyLAB’s reach expanded dramatically in South America and Africa, as the company has onboarded over 100 new schools and they currently have 2500 on the waitlist that are predominantly from Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, United States Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria.
“As the pandemic accelerates an emerging trend into a megatrend that will change how we learn forever, we saw an immediate need to better serve our new customers on the Latin American market. This is possible through the acquisition of Yopublico, who already has a loyal client base, the know-how, and is known for quality and excellence locally” Sahra-Josephine comments about the acquisition. Within the corporate learning sector also a huge increasing demand for solutions to accommodate new ways of working more flexible ways to work, learn, and socialize from home.
Prior to the acquisition YoPublico, who is based in Lima, Peru, CanopyLAB, and Yopublico, has been collaborating on customer projects for six months. Youblico is a publishing startup, which specializes in digitizing content for authors and universities. With the acquisition, CanopyLAB now has the ability to support customers through the entire digitization journey, from having only physical books to running entire degree programs online.
Increasing digitization in Latin American market
CanopyLAB now has offices in Copenhagen, Denmark, Lima, Peru, and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. On the decision to acquire Yopublico Sahra-Josephine notes “The Latin American market is particularly interesting. The combination of increasing digitization with wider access to the Internet and low loyalty towards the existing edtech products, we are taking as big a chunk of South America as we can from our competitors. This acquisition strengthens our ability to do that successfully”.
CanopyLAB’s approach to learning is that social learning increases engagement and completion rates, which is why their learning platform is designed with an integrated social network. “We feel the combination of social learning and adaptive quizzes has never been more relevant. Our customers rely heavily on these mechanisms to create engaging, relevant and curated learning experiences during a time where we are further removed from our students, but we still want them to be inspired by going to school” Sahra-Josephine concludes.
