BIG IN JAPAN: ALC Press, a Japanese provider of e-learning materials, language textbooks and English-training services, has purchased the OKpanda Live service of New York-based OKpanda.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement. ALC, founded in Tokyo in 1969, claims to have millions of students use its services. It’s part of Freebit, a publicly traded Japanese data, mobile and computing management services company.
OKpanda’s Live service combines live video instruction with a digital curriculum and claims over 500,000 users. The company started in 2012 and raised $1.6 million in seed funding two years later. It launched its Live service in Japan in December 2016, which delivers course plans and practice materials that change based on a student’s performance during live lessons.
