Silversmith Capital Partners’ Absorb Software acquires Koantic

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By CPE News

CPE News (8/18/2020) – Absorb Software, a portfolio company of Silversmith Capital Partners, has acquired Koantic Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded by Romain Gagnon and Simon-Pierre Tessier, Boucherville, Québec based Konatic is a developer of cloud-based eLearning authoring tool utilized to create interactive eLearning courses with the ease of drag and drop.

Koantic is the fourth eLearning company acquired by Absorb since 2019, following the Torch LMS, eLogic Learning and ePath Learning acquisitions last year.

Calgary based Absorb Software is a learning technology company with global offices in London, Dublin, Shanghai, Sydney, Boston, Tampa and Salt Lake City. Absorb offers both Absorb Infuse, the first true in-the-flow learning experience, and its flagship product, Absorb LMS, an industry-leading and award-winning Learning Management System for businesses, higher education, government and non-profit agencies around the world.

Silversmith Capital Partners completed a $59 million majority recapitalization of Absorb Software in September 2017.

phorto credit: Konatic

News Release

Absorb Software Acquires Koantic, a Cloud-Based Content Authoring Solution

Calgary, Alberta, Canada — Absorb Software, provider of the Absorb Learning Management System (LMS) and Absorb Infuse, today announced the acquisition of Koantic, a cloud-based course authoring tool.

The demand for engaging, interactive eLearning content that can be created quickly continues to grow. Unlike complicated desktop solutions from legacy vendors—or overly simplified cloud-based solutions—Koantic’s unique combination of an intuitive, web-based interface and full-featured course authoring meets the needs and expectations of today’s market.

“We went through an extensive search to find not only the best course authoring tool to complement Absorb LMS, but the best authoring tool, period. Koantic is that product,” said Mike Owens, founder and CEO of Absorb Software. “The Koantic acquisition keeps Absorb moving forward on a path of strong growth and market expansion opportunities. It also reinforces our position as a truly all-in-one learning platform at a time when intuitive, powerful tools are a differentiator for businesses.”

Absorb plans to integrate the course builder with its LMS while continuing to offer it as stand-alone product—which will soon be renamed Absorb Create.

“The current course authoring market includes many complex legacy tools that are difficult to use and expensive,” said Romain Gagnon, CEO of Koantic. “Our customers love that Koantic is a powerful, yet easy-to-use tool that ‘works like my brain does.’ In that sense, Absorb and Koantic complement each other perfectly. They’re both intuitive, best-in-class solutions on their own, and together, they offer the best end-to-end eLearning platform on the market.”

Koantic is the fourth eLearning company acquired by Absorb since 2019, following the Torch LMS, eLogic Learning and ePath Learning acquisitions last year.

Absorb Software is a portfolio company of Silversmith Capital Partners. Dentons Canada LLP and Choate Hall & Stewart served as legal counsel to Absorb Software.

About Absorb Software
Absorb Software is a learning technology company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with global offices in London, Dublin, Shanghai, Sydney, Boston, Tampa and Salt Lake City. Absorb offers both Absorb Infuse, the first true in-the-flow learning experience, and its flagship product, Absorb LMS, an industry-leading and award-winning Learning Management System for businesses, higher education, government and non-profit agencies around the world. Learn more at www.absorblms.com, or follow the company on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.

About Koantic
Koantic is the easiest cloud-based eLearning authoring tool utilized to create interactive eLearning courses with the ease of drag and drop. Our solution includes the ability to create slides Powerpoint like slides, branching, quizzes, animations, and interactive videos. You can also export your content to all of the standard 3rd party tools or use our Koantic hosting solution for in-depth analytics and ease of use to create and assign users to training. Founded in 2016, Koantic is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Learn more at www.koantic.com.

About Silversmith Capital Partners
Founded in 2015, Silversmith Capital Partners is a Boston-based growth equity firm with $1.1 billion of capital under management. Silversmith’s mission is to partner with and support the best entrepreneurs in growing, profitable technology and healthcare companies. Representative investments include ActiveCampaign, Centauri Health Solutions, Digital Map Products, DistroKid, Impact, LifeStance Health, MediQuant, Panalgo, Validity, and Webflow. The partners have over 75 years of collective investing experience and have served on the boards of numerous successful growth companies including Ability Network, Dealer.com, Liazon, Liberty Dialysis, MedHOK, Net Health, Passport Health, SurveyMonkey, and Wrike. For more information about Silversmith, please visit www.silversmithcapital.com