Thursday 29 April, Belfast, UK: The Texthelp Group, the global leader in literacy, numeracy and accessibility technology, has been recognised with The Queen’s Award For Enterprise in the International Trade category.

Her Majesty The Queen approved the Prime Minister’s recommendation that The Texthelp Group should receive the accolade, recognising the company’s contribution to technology innovations that help people worldwide with literacy and communication. Its tools are used by over 40 million students and adults worldwide with dyslexia, learning difficulties or those learning or working in a second language. Showcasing growth over the past year, there has been a staggering 158% increase in usage of its flagship Read&Write product.

Texthelp was founded in 1996 by Martin McKay and is headquartered in Antrim, Northern Ireland. Martin was the beneficiary of a Prince's Trust grant that helped him to start the business in 1995 and it’s fitting to now be selected as one of the UK companies to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. 

The group employs over 240 staff across locations in Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Norway, USA and Australia. Texthelp has been at the forefront of assistive technology over the last three decades and has been recognised with this prestigious accolade for its continued international business growth over the years, which has led to 70% of revenue coming from outside of the UK this year. 

This commitment to overseas expansion was most recently demonstrated in February 2021 when Texthelp acquired the Norway-based Lingit Group, including Lingit, LexAble and Claro Software. Through this acquisition, the business has added Lingdys, Textpilot, ClaroRead, Global Autocorrect and Global Tasks to its product suite and can offer a wider and improved range of assistive technologies to their customers in the UK, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, while expanding its reach in Northern Europe.

The Belfast-based technology company has been acknowledged for achieving international scale with its suite of education and workplace products as it reaches 40 million users

The Texthelp Group awarded The Queen’s Award For Enterprise

The Tech & Learning Awards recognise outstanding contributions to ed tech, and this year’s selection is particularly significant in a time when technology has come to the foreground of teaching. 

Among the new award categories offered this year was the “Best Tools for Remote/Blended Learning” category, which celebrates tools that support teachers in providing quality education in remote learning environments. 

An award of excellence is the highest approval rating offered by Tech & Learning Magazine, so we’re delighted that three of our products were assessed as meeting the required standards. 

In the Best Remote/Blended Learning Tools for Primary Grades category, both Fluency Tutor and EquatIO received awards, while EquatIO and WriQ were chosen among the Best Remote/Blended Learning Tools for Secondary Grades. 

Entries are judged upon their uniqueness within the market, their problem-solving ability, price value, and suitability for use. 

To read more about the awards, click here.

Tech & Learning Group Publisher

We’re thrilled to announce that Texthelp has brought home four awards at this year’s Tech & Learning Awards. 

Texthelp wins four Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence

Texthelp products win four awards at Tech and Learning Awards of Excellence for best remote learning tools

Hansen is an accomplished technology leader, board chair and director in both private and public technology companies.  He started his career running IT organisations with experience in education, manufacturing and technology.  He transitioned into leading software businesses during his 10 year career at CA Technologies (now Broadcom).  Hansen has led large teams responsible for the CA Security and Enterprise product families.  His first CEO opportunity was Numara software, a leader in Service and Asset Management, which subsequently was acquired by BMC software where Hansen continued to lead that division.  He then became CEO of Safenet, a large privately held authentication and encryption company.  Hansen also previously headed up sales, services, marketing and partners for the Dell Software group.

For the last five years, Hansen has worked as an Operating Executive in private equity. In that role he has served as chairman of several privately held companies and has been on the Board of Senetas (ASX) for the last 5 years.

Texthelp, the leading provider of literacy and numeracy assistive technologies to the education and corporate sectors, has appointed Dave Hansen as Non-Executive Chairman. 

Dave Hansen joins Texthelp as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors

Texthelp, the leading provider of literacy and numeracy assistive technologies to the education and corporate sectors, has appointed Dave Hansen as Non-Executive Chairman.

Hansen joins the Texthelp board of directors following the recent investment in the company from Five Arrows, the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co. 

Our work to improve diversity, equity and inclusion has been recognised by Diversity Mark NI

Texthelp awarded Bronze Diversity Mark Award

We are thrilled to announce that Texthelp has been awarded the Bronze Diversity Mark in recognition of our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. This marks an important step in our journey towards growing a more inclusive workplace where all employees can thrive. 

The College’s apprenticeship programmes have supported Texthelp’s talent acquisition and talent development strategies, and the College is fully committed to further developing this partnership and to expand the provision. 

Texthelp has successfully recruited a range of apprentices and this new partnership with Belfast Met has provided development support during key periods of growth, as well as digital learning solutions from recruitment stage through to delivery.

Aidan Sloane, Head of the Centre for Skills and Apprenticeships at Belfast Met, confirmed: ‘The College is pleased to be working with a global company such as Texthelp, which endeavours to help others develop skills as much as we do. The College is committed to ensuring that apprentices thrive in their chosen career pathway and our partnership with Texthelp supports our ethos towards holistic learning so that apprentices can gain the necessary skills and development in order to prepare them for the next steps in their future career.’

Texthelp’s mission is to help unlock potential and this is why the apprenticeship programme within their organisation is working so well. They have a total of 240 employees and recruited three apprentices to their Antrim base last year; one apprentice is working in the Marketing department and two apprentices are based in their IT section. 

In the past 12 months, Texthelp has played an important role in supporting the 1.5 billion children who have been learning at both school and home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has helped students to avoid learning loss by providing online products and tools that make remote learning more effective by improving confidence and understanding in reading, writing and maths. 

Texthelp also played an important role in helping 13 million people who suddenly moved to remote working and may have needed extra support. The company further supported businesses in reaching their core audiences at a time when so many aspects of life have been digitised.  

Texthelp is keen to offer ambitious people a life-shaping chance to succeed in an exciting career as part of its apprenticeship programme in partnership with Belfast Met.

Martin McKay, CEO at Texthelp said, ”The purpose of our business is to help people understand and be understood and it's our mission to help unlock everyone's full potential. That applies to our own staff base as well. We’re committed to developing the future workforce. This year we’ve taken on board three apprentices for the very first time to work in areas where we see increasing demand - software development and social media. We’re delighted to be working with Belfast Met on the apprenticeship programme. It will help us develop the key competencies of the staff we require to help us with our growth plans.”

This new partnership between Belfast Met and Texthelp has been very successful; both organisations are aligned to the same values and goals of helping learners to develop new skills to achieve their goals, with a focus on social inclusion. Employers engaging in apprenticeships programmes benefit from growth and improvement in productivity in their businesses, whilst also contributing to the skills needs of the Northern Ireland economy. 

For more information about apprenticeship business solutions at Belfast Met go to https://www.belfastmet.ac.uk/apprenticeships/how-apprenticeships-work/

Read how Belfast Met have been working alongside Texthelp, to support growth and development through a new apprenticeship partnership.

Texthelp and Belfast Met: New Apprenticeship Partnership

Texthelp and Belfast Met: New Apprenticeship Partnership Supports Growth and Development

Belfast Met’s Centre for Skills and Apprenticeships continues to play a key role in designing, developing and delivering flexible employer-led solutions in apprenticeships across a diverse range of industries. Belfast Met has been delighted to be working alongside Texthelp, the education and corporate technology company with 30 million global users, during their exciting period of strategic growth and development.

The Lingit Group currently serves literacy and accessibility technology customers across Europe. Together, Texthelp and Lingit will offer a wider and improved range of assistive technologies to their customers in the UK, USA and Australia.  Lingit will also be able to provide Texthelp Maths products to their customers for the first time.

Martin McKay, Founder & CEO, Texthelp said: “I have long admired the Lingit Group and in particular how aligned their mission is to ours. We share a belief that everyone has the right to understand and be understood. I am delighted that Frode and his team will now be joining the Texthelp family as we continue to grow our global reach together. Lingit is already helping millions of people, and together we can make an impact on even more people’s lives. We want to continue to provide disabled students with the wide choice of tools currently available to them and improve their user experience. In the future, our combined expertise and reach will drive more rapid product improvements for many more people around the world.”

Frode Thulien CEO at Lingit, commented “This is a really exciting moment for the Lingit Group as we join forces with Texthelp. Purpose has always been at the heart of what we do, and this deal will enable us to bring our products to a wider audience around the world, helping more students benefit from our software. I am looking forward to working with Martin and the team in the coming months as we focus on our joint ambition of creating equal opportunities for all.”

Joakim Kjemperud, Principal at Verdane, said: “We want to thank Frode and the Lingit Group team for an exciting growth journey together. Since partnering with Verdane in 2017, Lingit has grown from Norway’s leading provider of reading and writing support software to Northern Europe’s preferred software platform for smart, inclusive technology that helps people read, write and express their thoughts and share information more accurately and fluently across all stages of life. In just four years, Lingit’s annual number of licenses sold has grown more than sixfold. In partnership with the stellar team at Texthelp, this important enterprise to create equal opportunities for all enters its next stage of growth, to the benefit of avid readers and writers across Northern Europe,” 

Verdane, which was the majority shareholder in Lingit Group, will remain as a minority owner in the new, combined group and continue to support its future growth.

Texthelp Ltd, the global leader in literacy and accessibility technology, has acquired the Lingit Group. This deal will enable the best assistive technologies to be brought to many more students around the world.

Texthelp Ltd acquires the Lingit Group

Belfast, 10th March 2021: Texthelp Ltd, the global leader in literacy and accessibility technology, has acquired the Lingit Group. This deal will enable the best assistive technologies to be brought to many more students around the world. The acquisition was completed on Monday 8th March. 

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