Education technology holding company, Sibling Group (SIBE) has acquired mobile education software platform, Urban Planet Mobile, the provider of low-cost English language service, Urban English.
News and business analysis for Professionals in International Education
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Sibling Group acquires largest ESL mobile firm
Following SIBE's acquisition, UPM staff will remain intact and have additional staff to support growth. Since launching Urban English in 2010, UPM has delivered over 60 million English language lessons to mobile devices, mostly in developing countries. In Guatemala alone, 250,000 individuals subscribe to receive daily ESL tutoring.
UPM will continue to operate Urban English but will use its vast network to market other SIBE products including the Blended Schools Network, an online learning service for K-12 students serving more than 300 US school districts, acquired by SIBE last May.
“The future is very bright, as the need for cost-effective educational tools increase, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Asia,” UPM Marketing Manager Will Gordon told The PIE News.
“The future is very bright, as the need for cost-effective educational tools increase, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Asia”
“UPM staff will stay fully intact and will even grow as we scale up our international sales and marketing efforts for UPM products, BSN and future SIBE products,” he added.
Gordon said the acquisition will lead to a new curriculum development team for additional products across all brands, as well as access to public capital markets to fuel future growth.
UPM owns the world’s largest digital library of ESL courses available for mobile devices and its network includes 36 distributors and 30 mobile operators in over 40 countries.
Founded in 2007, UPM delivers content to all mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets and computers via SMS, IVR/voice, ringtones, apps and mobile web. It recently expanded its product line into literacy and mobile health.
According to global consulting firm Hystra, the number of educational projects delivered through broadband has grown to 47 in 2014, the highest increase, since 2011 of any other service offering including finance or agriculture.
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