D2L Inc., a global learning innovation company helping organizations reshape the future of education and work, announced the acquisition of Connected Shopping Ltd., a SaaS e-commerce and maker of Course Merchant. The companies already have a longstanding integration partnership. This acquisition will allow D2L to deliver Course Merchant as a part of its suite of products to address the growing needs of higher education and training organizations worldwide.
Connected Shopping Ltd. will continue to serve its worldwide customer base under its current brand as a D2L Company in the coming months, and will maintain its existing operations in the UK. D2L will continue to offer Course Merchant as an optional add-on to its Brightspace learning innovation platform. Course Merchant’s UK-based team will be added to D2L’s global organization.
However, the financial terms were not disclosed.
Speaking about the deal, Chief Executive Officer of D2L, John Baker, said:
We are focused on making it easier for learners to register for online courses. Course Merchant’s seamless, modern e-commerce experience helps provide the ongoing support necessary to help accelerate the growth of our clients. Today’s acquisition is a natural extension of our already successful relationship, and we anticipate that this will translate into new ways for our clients to reach learners. We welcome Course Merchant employees and customers to D2L and look forward to continuing to offer our world-class level of support as we undertake this acquisition.
Course Merchant has been designed specifically for selling courses online and road-tested in real-world business settings. The company serves more than 200 global customers across the higher education and corporate markets. It offers a front-end course catalogue and a robust and efficient payments and enrollments system to support continuing education and workforce development organizations servicing the upskilling market.
Managing Director of Connected Shopping Ltd, Richard Standen, commented:
Uniting the Course Merchant solution with the full-cycle D2L Brightspace learning innovation platform is a win-win for our shared clients. We are incredibly enthusiastic about joining the innovative team that has made Brightspace one of the industry’s leading learning platforms.
Headquartered in Kitchener, Canada, D2L unifies a diverse and fragmented learning market through a robust tech ecosystem supported by more than 20 years of expertise and a vision for the future of work and learning. The firm focuses on creating unique learner-centric platforms backed by learning science that increases adoption, retention, and engagement and delivers learning outcomes. It collaborates with leaders, policymakers, and industry innovators worldwide to advance learning.
