Schoology, founded at Olin, hits exit milestone

A company founded by students in Olin’s Hatchery course in 2009 has reached a major milestone with the announcement Thursday that it will be acquired by a rival in the industry.

Schoology started as a website three WashU students built to share class notes, evolved into a nascent company a year later and grew to become a full-fledged learning management system that drew more than $57 million in venture capital.

Now, founders Jeremy Friedman, AB 2009; Ryan Hwang, BSBA 2009; and Timothy Trinidad, BSBA 2009, BSAS 2009, have agreed to sell their firm to PowerSchool for an undisclosed sum. The California-based company provides K-12 education technology to 45 million students. Schoology’s platform supports more than 20 million users.

“With the scale and investment we will get being part of PowerSchool, we can further advance what is possible in education, and take Schoology to a whole new level,” cofounder and CEO Friedman said in a statement posted to the Schoology website.

Schoology—which competes with learning management software providers such as Canvas, Moodle and Google Classroom—has about a 17 percent market share in small- to mid-sized districts, and a 14 percent share in large districts that serve more than 6,500 students, according to a report on the acquisition by EdSurge.

The Schoology announcement said the two companies would continue to operate separately until an official close has been announced.

Pictured above, Schoology founders: Bill Kindle along with WashU alums Ryan Hwang, Jeremy Friedman and Timothy Trinidad — who developed the social networking site that helps keep kids focused on their studies.