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. 

Texthelp appoints Jason Carroll as Chief Product Officer

We're delighted to announce that Jason Carroll joins our Senior Management team at Texthelp in an exciting new role as our Chief Product Officer. 

Prior to joining Texthelp, Jason spent ten years as an Educational and Assistive Technology Consultant. He’s been with us now for almost a decade. And he’s done a tremendous job for us over the last few years managing our products.  

Founded in 1996, Texthelp has established itself as the global pioneer and leader in cloud-based assistive technology and learning analytics for the education and corporate sectors.  The company has supported 30 million students and employees worldwide with reading, writing and numeracy, as well as productivity challenges, including those with dyslexia or working in a second language. Current customers include some of the largest school districts in North America and Australia, schools and businesses across the UK and Middle East, as well as U.S. Government and Fortune 500 organizations.

Texthelp’s product suite includes its gold-standard literacy and accessibility support software Read&Write; math and science digital product EquatIO; web accessibility toolbar Browsealoud; and digital reading fluency practice and assessment tool Fluency Tutor.  In October, Texthelp also launched WriQ, a cloud-based writing assessment, benchmarking, and achievement tool that provides rapid and consistent feedback using learning analytics, based on analysis of 250,000 teacher-delivered writing assessments.  The company partners with the world’s leading technology brands, including Google, Microsoft and Apple, to deliver solutions that work across all major platforms.

Texthelp has played an important role in supporting the 1.5 billion children whose learning has been disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Texthelp has helped students to avoid further learning loss by providing online products and tools that make remote learning more effective and engaging.  Texthelp workplace products have also helped employees adjust to remote working and have supported businesses in reaching their core audiences at a time when so many aspects of life have been digitized.

Earlier this year, Texthelp appointed its Co-Founder and former CTO, Martin McKay, to lead the company as CEO.  Other senior-level appointments include Ryan Graham to Chief Technical Officer, and Jonny Gribben to Chief Data Officer.

Martin McKay, Founder & CEO, Texthelp said: “We are thrilled and honored to be working with Five Arrows as we enter the next stage of our growth and expansion. We were impressed by their focus on data, software and technology-enabled businesses, and their active supportive approach to scaling businesses. We look forward to releasing two new products this financial year with Five Arrows support as we expand our workplace and education product offerings. We are also grateful to LDC who helped us go further, faster. They believed in the potential of our business, providing the investment, support and expertise to help us accelerate a truly differentiating digital transformation in a relatively short space of time.”

Sacha Oshry, Managing Director at Five Arrows Principal Investments said: “We are absolutely delighted and privileged to be partnering with Martin and his leadership team as Texthelp enters its next stage of growth.  Texthelp is a global market leader with high recurring revenue, a proven track record of organic growth with demonstrable resilience, and significant untapped potential.  We believe that Texthelp’s innovative and high-quality products make the company well-positioned to capitalize from the powerful structural growth trends in the global assistive technology and remote working markets in both the education and corporate sectors.”

Ari Benacerraf, Partner at Five Arrows Capital Partners further commented: “We believe that Texthelp is a highly differentiated SaaS company with a loyal customer base in a rapidly growing sector. Five Arrows has significant experience backing global vertical B2B software businesses and businesses which serve the North American K-12 education sector.  We look forward to supporting Martin and his team to accelerate Texthelp’s growth ambitions over the coming years. This is yet another great example of our US and European corporate private equity teams working collaboratively to invest in companies that stand to directly benefit from the global networks and trans-atlantic synergy that exists across our private equity platform.”  

Texthelp and LDC were advised by DC Advisory (Corporate Finance), Gateley (Legal), Pinsent Masons (Legal) and EY (Personal Tax). Five Arrows was advised by Raymond James (Corporate Finance), Shoosmiths (Legal) and EY-Parthenon (Commercial).

Texthelp Ltd, the global leader in literacy and accessibility technology, today announced a significant investment from Five Arrows, the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co, as it replaces LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group.

Texthelp receives investment from Five Arrows

Press: Texthelp receives investment from Five Arrows

Texthelp Ltd, the global leader in literacy and accessibility technology, today announced a significant investment from Five Arrows, the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co, as it replaces LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group.

Boston, December 16, 2020: Texthelp Ltd, the global leader in literacy and accessibility technology, today announced a significant investment from Five Arrows, the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co, as it replaces LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group. Five Arrows is investing in Texthelp through its European fund (Five Arrows Principal Investments) and its US fund (Five Arrows Capital Partners). Five Arrows targets investments in category-leading B2B data and software companies across healthcare, education, and other vertical end-markets. 

Mark will move into a non-executive director role. Martin previously held the role of Chief Technical Officer at Texthelp, and was a founding member of the business in 1996. He will assume his new position on 1st September 2020.

Founded in 1996, Texthelp has been at the forefront of literacy and numeracy software development  over the last three decades. Its innovative suite of products includes Read&Write, EquatiO, Browsealoud and WriQ which are used in both the education and corporate sectors to help students and employees with reading, writing and numeracy difficulties, including those with dyslexia or working in a second language. The last twelve months has been a period of exponential growth, with new users increasing from 22.2m to 29.7m across the product range. Read&Write alone has 24.9m users worldwide and the addition of new products such as EquatIO and WriQ has made a strong contribution to new user growth, with EquatIO experiencing 63% growth in the last 12 months.

Current customers include some of the largest school districts in North America and Australia, as well as Government and Fortune 500 organisations. The company partners with the world’s leading technology brands including Google, Microsoft and Apple to deliver solutions that work across all major mobile, tablet and computer operating systems.

As market leader, Texthelp has one of the largest data sets that offers insights into learning patterns and behaviours. Working with both educators and its development team, it is able to identify gaps in learning, harnessing data driven insights to iterate existing products, and build new ones in response to user feedback.

Texthelp secured backing from LDC, a leading mid-market private equity investor, in 2019. With LDC’s support, Martin will now lead the company during its next phase of growth focused on realising opportunities in new and existing markets as well as driving new product development, in particular around data analytics.

Martin McKay, CEO Elect said: “I am honoured and excited to lead Texthelp as we enter our next phase of growth. One of Texthelp’s greatest assets is our people and our ability to bring innovative solutions to our customers. We have significant opportunity now as schools and workplaces need literacy and numeracy tools more than ever, and our experience and credibility in the market means we are well positioned to meet this demand.  Mark will certainly be a tough act to follow. Consistently true to his values throughout his tenure at Texthelp, he is a widely respected leader, not just within the company but also across the Assistive Technology industry globally.”

“Martin is a technology visionary as well as a highly respected industry veteran” said Mark McCusker, incumbent CEO. “Part of Texthelp’s DNA, he is the driving force behind the company’s commitment to creating technology which helps everyone reach their full potential. Having worked together for 20 years, I believe that his leadership and global vision is exactly what Texthelp needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth, at a time when the digitisation of learning in schools and the workplace is rapidly evolving.”

Chairman, LDC Group

Texthelp appoints CTO and co-founder Martin McKay as CEO

Texthelp has appointed Martin McKay as CEO following Mark McCusker’s decision to step down as CEO after 20 years. 

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