Dev Clever acquires The Inspirational Learning Group as it expands global user base

Dev Clever (DEV FOLLOW) said  it has successfully acquired the UK-based educational business, The Inspirational Learning Group Limited ("TILG") for a cash consideration of £129,200 and the issue of 6,994,177 new ordinary shares in Dev, subject to a phased two-year lock-in period. 

The education-focused technology company said it believes the activities of TILG, a firm which operates as a profitable education business, will complement Dev Clever's existing career guidance and development platforms and enhance the Company's content offering. 

Upon the successful execution of the acquisition which was first announced in June 2021, Dev will now utilise the careers programmes developed by TILG to launch its own National Career Challenge ("NCC") which will be available to students in the UK during late Q4 2021. 

Dev added that it is committed to delivering an NCC programme in India, where it has an existing partnership with the National Independent Schools Alliance ("NISA"), in 1H22. 

As part of its previously outlined strategy, Dev Clever expects to use the Career Challenge initiative to enter additional large emerging market territories over the next three years. 

The Company also unveiled a ‘breakthrough’ tactical partnership back in June 2021 which it said is expected to deliver a minimum of $50 million in revenues over the next four years.  

The education-focused technology company partnered with Aldebaron DMCC, a Dubai-based organisation which is focused on distributing and implementing consumer facing technology and next generation impactful digital solutions into emerging markets globally.   

The partnership will enable Dev to accelerate a global rollout plan across Asian territories, starting in India in partnership with NISA and then extending across Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and into the Middle East and Africa in the next three years.  

The contract with Adebaron is set to earn Dev Clever $5 million in 2021, $10 million in 2022, $25 million in 2023, and $20 million in 2024 (each for the financial years ending 31 October).  

The completion of today’s acquisition of TILG, together with the impending signing of definitive documentation relating to the tactical partnership and contract agreement with Aldebaron DMCC, is expected to substantially extend Dev’s proposition and strengthen its entry into new markets whilst allowing the Group to swiftly expand its global user base. 

The Group said it is making ‘good progress’ in regards to signing a definitive documentation and said it expects the relevant documents to be completed before the end of August 2021. 

Going forward, Dev will progress with the UK pilot launch of the NCC programme in late 4Q21 and then commence the rollout across India in 1H22 where it will invite all 1.5 million public and private schools to participate, providing the potential to reach c. 280 million students who can participate in what will become known as the Indian National Career Challenge. 

The Company detailed that it has already made ‘significant progress’ in relation to its partnership with NISA, including the successful development and deployment of the Company's direct to consumer offer into Launchmycareer.com - which is now live across India. 

Both Dev Clever and its Indian management team say they are ‘really encouraged’ with the high level of interest and school sign up volumes that have already been achieved now that a series of events across all regions in India have been launched. 

CEO of DEV, Chris Jeffries said the combination of Dev’s career guidance and development platforms and TILG's well-established Challenge programmes “is a powerful proposition.” 

“We are confident it will enable us to rapidly scale our global user base, starting in the UK and in India, where our tactical partnership with Aldebaron means our offering is the central conviction 'go to market education initiative' for an exciting new social media proposition.” 

"We are making excellent progress with NISA and have received very positive feedback following the initial launch events that have been held in recent weeks. The framework for the launch of the NCC is now agreed and we are confident it will engage many young students who will ultimately all benefit from the services that we are able to provide them,” he added. 

Michael and Ben Dyer, Co-Founders of The Inspirational Learning Group commented: 

The journey that we have been on has proven to be extremely successful, and we are now able to draw on Dev Clever's deep roots within significant international territories with large addressable markets, such as India. The combination of our operations makes for a compelling proposition, and we are working hard with Chris and the rest of the wider Dev Clever team to deploy our combined services in the UK later this year and in India in 2022." 

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Earlier this month, Dev Clever said in its 1H21 results that it had continued to make “material and incremental progress” over the period with revenue soaring 531% from £0.38m in 1H20. 

The education-focused technology firm said its revenue increase of 531% to £2.4 million from £0.383m in 1H20 was supported by ‘significant contract wins’ in the Educate division. 

Looking ahead, Dev Clever highlighted that the EdTech market ‘remains robust’. It said it believes there is “a globally growing need and demand for more effective careers platforms that can engage young people and connect them directly with their future employers.” 

In particular, RBSA Advisors said the Indian EdTech market is poised to transform from a $700-800m market to a $30bn in size in the next 10 years. Furthermore, a report highlighted the EdTech industry has already received $1.4 billion in investment by October 2020. 

As a result of its improved financial performance and recent contract wins, which DEV said ‘demonstrates its ability to commercialise its core EdTech platforms’, the Board said it is ‘very well placed’ to exceed management's expectations for the year ending 31 October 2021. 

Amongst other things, the dedicated resources and infrastructure in India will ‘maximise the opportunity with NISA affiliated schools and the wider BPS (budget private schools) sector.  

Looking ahead, and as a result of its strong performance, the company believes it is 'very well placed to exceed management's expectations for the full year ending 31 October 2021.'  

Shares in Dev Clever have seen a near three-fold increase in value since the beginning of 2021. The stock was trading 1.33% higher this morning at 38p following the announcement. 

DEV price chart

Reasons to FOLLOW DEV

Dev Clever Holdings is a software and technology group based in Tamworth, United Kingdom, specialising in the use of cloud-based VR and gamification technologies to deliver rich customer engagement experiences across both the education and commercial sectors.    

Its educational division offers careers guidance and recruitment solutions to secondary schools, colleges, universities, apprenticeship providers and employers with digital products to recruit and develop applicants and skills within their institutions and organisations.    

Through its VR Careers Experience, VICTAR, the group encourages ‘hard to reach students disengaged from the process as well as reaffirming students on their career journey.’     

Focused on bridging this global skills gap, DEV offers technology designed to support schools globally and to embrace immersive technology and revolutionise career guidance programs.      

Due to a new reality of distance learning in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EdTech space has surged with analysts previously reporting an average increase in revenue of 335% according to an industry impact analysis by Rootstrap.       

According to market data published by MarketsandMarkets, the EdTech and Smart Classroom Market size is expected to grow globally from $85.8 billion in 2020 to $181.3 billion by 2025.    

In May this year DEV entered into an agreement with Intrinsic Capital Jersey Ltd, founded by serial entrepreneur and investor Chris Akers, to raise up to £10m (gross) through a subscription at 10p.    

The fund raised in May enabled DEV to accelerate its growth plans with collaboration partners and clients whilst also funding the expansion of the Company into new territories.    

The valuation multiples for EdTech Companies continues to rise as larger multinational companies acquire innovative players in the space to capture growth.  

In recent weeks, the Company announced that it had entered into a five-year exclusive partnership agreement with Veative Labs (“Veative”) and the National Independent Schools Alliance (“NISA”), India’s largest governing body for budget private educational institutions.   

The agreement saw all parties execute an implementation and rollout schedule from last month, which will result in Dev’s Launchyourcareer being utilised by NISA as the platform-of-choice to deliver a minimum standard of career guidance across its schools.    

NISA represents over 70,000 budget private schools in India, attended by c.13 million students. Chris Jeffries, Chief Executive of Dev Clever, has described the agreement as “a significant opportunity to support the development of millions of young people in India.”    

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