GlobalScholar.com lands $27 million, buys Excelsior

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John Cook's Venture Blog

« Amazon buys Audible for $300 million | Main | Microsoft offers $45 billion for Yahoo »

GlobalScholar.com lands $27 million, buys Excelsior

In one of the largest venture capital deals in the state so far this year, Bellevue's GlobalScholar.com has raised $27 million.

Kal Raman of GlobalScholar

The money -- provided by Ignition Partners, Knowledge Universe and former drugstore.com Chief Executive Peter Neupert -- will be used to accelerate growth and to acquire Excelsior Software.

Excelsior is a 21-year-old Greeley, Colo., company whose software is used by school districts to track and report on student performance and attendance. Customers include Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Broward County Public Schools and Montgomery County Public Schools of Maryland.

Excelsior employs 60 people, with the team and management remaining in Colorado.

Formerly known as Infilearn, GlobalScholar is led by former drugstore.com executive Kal Raman. More on the startup from my story last year.

"The additional funding, the wealth of education experience the Excelsior Software team brings and the integration of our products, will allow us to provide the tools students, parents and educators need to confidently improve student outcomes," said Raman in a statement.

GlobalScholar offers educational institutions tools to improve teaching capabilities as well as online tutoring and search functionality to help parents and teachers locate appropriate schools.

It recently won a multiyear deal to provide technology to the South Carolina Department of Education. The online system will allow teachers and administrators to communicate with parents and students about homework assignments, student goals and other factors. It also streamlines the education administration process.

Prior to the acquisition, GlobalScholar employed 50 in Bellevue and 100 in India.

Posted by at January 31, 2008 5:04 p.m.
Category: M&A

Comments

#93037

Posted by unregistered user at 1/31/08 6:11 p.m.

Why is education suddenly attracting all this capital?

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#93042

Posted by Jason Grimes at 1/31/08 6:19 p.m.

Congrats to Kal & Team! Great job!

Jason Grimes

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#93050

Posted by unregistered user at 1/31/08 6:35 p.m.

This company is HOT HOT HOT!

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#93663

Posted by unregistered user at 2/1/08 9:06 p.m.

$27M shot to hell. Kal is a self-aggrandizing twit. He has NEVER made shareholders one penny nor found a team he didn't love to beat with is insecure-stick.

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#93667

Posted by unregistered user at 2/1/08 9:38 p.m.

Agree with #93663. They had an internet strategy and went out and bought a software company. Guess what? they figured it ain't going to cut with internet based, so called global education solution. If Excelsior were doing well then they wouldn't have sold it to a start up as it can't be a cash deal. Soon there will be plenty of companies, if not already, who offer such a service for FREE on the net. It would be interesting to see this in few years with 200+ employees already there.

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#94310

Posted by weaponsgrade at 2/3/08 10:03 p.m.

Kal is a total looser! He totally destroyed a great business concept in drugstore.com. He cashed in all his options in early 2004 before drugstore.com went tits up in June of 2004. Kal resigned(was fired) right after the shareholders meeting in June of 2004. A total worthless individual with no concern for others than himself.

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#94636

Posted by unregistered user at 2/4/08 6:00 p.m.

#94310 You are correct. Very manipulative guy even during his undergraduate days in India. I was shocked to read his story that he came to US with $100 and his mother used to make $50/month. All total lies. The fact is he got married at the age of 21(how can one think of this without having enough $$). His uncle was working in the US and he had enough connections in the US.

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#94672

Posted by unregistered user at 2/4/08 9:09 p.m.

This loser should join Martin Tobias and start a newco called narcissistic.com. Kal got fired from Drugstore.com after burning through millions and adding zero to the bottom line. He's a joke and just because he's Peter Neupert's little biatch, doesn't mean he'll make it in this company. He obviouly fooled Bezos and Michael Milken & Company. Can't wait for the blog that announces this co. is tits up.

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#96069

Posted by unregistered user at 2/8/08 3:15 p.m.

Now of they can fix 1/2 the broken links off of their home page - they'd be set! Another great Ignition investment! (we'll see how long it takes for them to ruin this one)

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#100576

Posted by unregistered user at 2/21/08 3:57 p.m.

I wonder if Kal still uses his employees as targets for his temper tantrums and yelling??? Who would hire that guy????!!!!!

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#105257

Posted by unregistered user at 3/5/08 8:07 p.m.

Global Scholar had their COO resign CTO resign 2 marketing Directors resign and more Not good start up Rumors they can't recruit good talent and give their Indian employees 2x stock options as the nons

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#110362

Posted by unregistered user at 3/21/08 6:03 a.m.

Why nobody is talking about what KAL did in Amazon?????

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#110364

Posted by unregistered user at 3/21/08 6:08 a.m.

It seems GlobalScholar has got great B2B deals. I hope this will make lot of negative mind's mouth shut

All the Best to GlobalScholar

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