According to a recent news release, Instructure Holdings has reached an agreement to acquire Parchment, which has processed more than 165 million requests for credentials on behalf of 15,000-plus learning and training institutions in the United States and five other English-speaking nations over the past two decades.
The purchase price of Parchment was $795 million, and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.
“By adding Parchment to the Instructure Learning Platform, we will provide a verifiable and comprehensive digital passport of achievement records and outcomes for learners,” Instructure CEO Steve Daly said in a public statement. “Together we expand the Instructure platform for existing customers, welcome new Parchment customers and open new pathways for growth with multiple new solution categories.”
This marks the company’s ninth acquisition in six years, according to Crunchbase, following last year’s purchase of LearnPlatform for evaluating new technologies and Concentric Sky for micro-credentialing, plus other tools for educational video, technology adoption, curricula, compliance, and data interoperability. Earlier this year, Instructure also partnered with the education data company K16 Solutions to help its customers archive data, and with Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management to enroll more women in business degree programs.
According to its website, Parchment helped pioneer the process of electronic transcript deliveries from high school to college admissions offices in 2003, then partnered with the college-and-career-readiness software company Naviance in 2012 to expand e-transcript services to colleges and universities, professional organizations and licensing boards. In 2014, the company launched Parchment Learner Profile to help students research and compare higher-learning institutions, and in 2021 it merged with another credentialing company, Digitary, to expand its services to Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand. And earlier this year, Parchment launched Pathways, which offers tools for more complicated situations such as dual enrollment at multiple institutions, course sharing, and transferring academic credits or certifications to other schools, according to its website.
With the addition of Parchment, officials from both companies said Instructure will have a better set of solutions to connect learners to future academic, training and employment opportunities.
“Parchment’s mission is to help turn credentials into opportunities. With this combination, we will dramatically expand the credential to include rich data and more evidence of skills and learning,” Parchment CEO Matthew Pittinsky said in a public statement. “The seamless experience we envision for learners will provide easier, more equitable access to the educational and employment opportunities they seek as they build their lifelong record of learning.”
