VCT News
ProVen VCTs provide follow on investment in Espresso Broadband
- Espresso to acquire Netmedia Education -
27 February 2006 - Beringea, the private equity fund manager which manages ProVen VCT and ProVen Growth & Income VCT (PGI VCT), announced today that it has made a follow-on investment in Espresso Broadband Ltd., the leading provider of educational broadband content in the UK. The two funds have committed an additional £950,000 to part-finance Espresso's acquisition of Netmedia Education, the market leader in the development of web-based learning environments.
Espresso, which was founded in 1997, has received almost £2 million in funding from ProVen VCT and PGI VCT since their first investment in 2001. In January 2005, Espresso received a further strategic investment from Independent Television News (ITN), which saw Mark Wood, Chief Executive of ITN, join the board.
Espresso provides a comprehensive digital library of high quality, video-rich teaching resources and interactive student activities designed to support teachers, motivate pupils and help to raise standards in primary and secondary classrooms. The company currently services 6,500 subscribing schools, representing a 33% market penetration in English primary schools.
As a combined business, Espresso and Netmedia will provide schools with an end-to-end educational solution by creating and delivering curriculum-based content to a personalised learning portal, including single sign on, systems inter-operability, and single points of service delivery and support. The enlarged company will also be uniquely placed to enable schools to meet the Government's personalised learning agenda and strategy for 2008. The Government's strategy paper 'Harnessing Technology' requires that, by 2008, teachers can access rich, subject-related, interactive content, a personal learning space for all learners and an e-portfolio able capture a record of lifelong learning achievement.