We might be only halfway through 2023, but it’s already proven to be a busy year for the corporate training industry. In the first quarter, we saw noteworthy deals such as Go1’s acquisition of Anders Pink, Docebo’s announcement of a strategic partnership with ELB Learning and Hemsley Fraser’s acquisition of MindonSite, just to name a few.

This momentum didn’t slow down in the second quarter. Here are the deals we took note of.

Content Development

According to Training Industry’s 2022 report, “The State of the Learning Services Market,” there has been a shift of content development services making up most of the revenue as companies need newly developed, converted and refreshed content.

The demand for content development services was reflected in last quarter’s market activity, with the following deals taking place:

• LEO Learning joined forces with GP Strategies’ custom content and development team to form GP Strategies’ learning experience division.
• Learneo, Inc., a platform of productivity and learning businesses, announced the acquisition of LanguageTool, a multilingual platform for over 30 languages. In the press release, Andrew Grauer, CEO of Learneo, said, “The LanguageTool business fits squarely in our investment thesis and accelerates our mission thanks to their values-aligned and ambitious co-founders, their broad customer reach of B2C and B2B clients across the globe, and their unique language and AI expertise.”
• Leading learning content provider Go1 acquired Blinkist, a mobile-first learning app that summarizes key ideas from professional books and podcasts. The acquisition “forms the foundation of an innovative new model of corporate learning which seeks to engage learners throughout their day-to-day lives,” the press release states. 
• Elucidat, an eLearning authoring platform, announced a partnership with Rise Up, a learning management system (LMS) and learning experience platform (LXP) provider.
• D2L Inc., a leading learning technology company, acquired Connected Shopping, Ltd., a software as a service (SaaS) e-commerce and course catalog company.
• WeLearn, a learning solutions and custom content creation provider, and Meahana, a facilitator-first learning platform, announced a strategic partnership.

Learning Technologies

Learning technologies continue to be in demand, as companies look to support an increasingly distributed and digital-first workforce.

Here are the learning technology deals that took place last quarter:

• Docebo, a leading learning platform provider, announced the acquisition of PeerBoard, a plug and play community as a service platform owned and operated by Circles Collective Inc.
• Class Technologies Inc., a leading provider of synchronous virtual classrooms, acquired CoSo Cloud LLC, a technology and services company that provides secure, private cloud-managed services, custom software applications and professional services for the federal and corporate markets.
• LMS365, a leading LMS platform, raised $20 million in growth capital, led by Blue Cloud Ventures, to fund its continued global expansion.
• OpenLMS, a leading provider of open-source LMSs, announced a partnership with Ease Learning to integrate with Skillways, their leading skills assessment platform.

Sales Training

In the sales training segment of the market:

• Truelink Capital acquired Richardson Sales Performance, a global leader in sales training and performance improvement.
• Sales Empowerment Group (SEG), an outsourced sales and marketing consulting firm and a portfolio company of RFE Investment Partners, acquired Action Selling, a sales training company.
• Rallyware, a performance enablement platform, announced the acquisition of Myagi, a retail sales enablement platform.
• Mindtickle, a leader in sales enablement and revenue productivity, announced the acquisition of Enable Us.

Other Deals by Market Segment

Leadership

• Waldron, a leadership development and organizational transformation consultancy, and Torchiana, a leader in talent solution services, finalized an agreement to merge. 

Performance Management

• Neobrain, Europe’s leading artificial intelligence (AI)-powered talent management solution, announced its move to further establish itself in the U.S. market with the acquisition of San Francisco-based HR performance platform Flashbrand, which specializes in the continuous optimization of employee performance and engagement.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• Ciphr, a provider of human resources (HR) and learning software, announced the acquisition of Marshall E-Learning, a specialist diversity and inclusion online learning provider.

IT and Technical Training

• Axcel Learning, a professional education platform backed by Alpine Investors, announced a partnership with Dion Training, a leading information technology (IT) certification exam preparation company that specializes in CompTIA and ITIL certifications.
• In its third instructor-led training (ILT) acquisition (alongside Web Age Solutions and Accelebrate), Axcel Learning acquired ExitCertified, an IT training solutions provider.

Workforce Development

• IFS signed a definitive agreement to purchase Poka, Inc. (Poka) a leading Quebec-based provider of a connected worker platform.

Measurement and Analytics

• Talentism, whose learning system helps company leaders achieve their business goals by uncovering indicators of future potential failure within their business and providing a path to fix them, acquired “a significant investment” from Decathlon Capital Partners to support its growth initiatives. According to the press release, “Talentism will use the additional capital to invest in increasing client support offerings, further developing Talentism OS, its proprietary platform and supporting the company’s growth.”

Compliance

• 360training, a leading online regulated training provider, acquired ACLS Medical Training and Safety Provisions, two respected providers of medical training and workplace safety.

Professional Development

• Training The Street (TTS), a leading provider of educational resources for financial professionals, announced its second add-on acquisition with the purchase of The Marquee Group, Canada’s leading provider of financial modeling training and consulting.

Strategy

• Verb, a people development platform incorporating behavioral science and proprietary microlearning content to create workplace training, was acquired by Paycor.