Discovery Education’s Latest Acquisition Expands the Company’s Digital Solution Suite Supporting Science Education

Discovery Education, a global EdTech company backed by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Clearlake”), today announced it has acquired US-based Pivot Interactives SBC. Led by a team of science teachers, practitioners, and students, Pivot Interactives develops dynamic cloud-based activities and labs that actively engage students in the authentic exploration of real scientific phenomena. Terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Pivot Interactives supports Discovery Education’s mission to prepare learners for tomorrow by creating innovative classrooms connected to today’s world. Pivot Interactives will complement Discovery Education’s other successful digital services supporting science education, which include Discovery Education’s K-12 platform, Mystery Science, STEM Connect, the Math, Science, and Social Studies Techbooks, Espresso, Coding and Health and Relationships.

Pivot Interactives is Discovery Education’s second acquisition this month, having also acquired DoodleLearning.

“Discovery Education empowers teachers and inspires students worldwide through digital content delivered on our platform,” said Discovery Education Chief Executive Officer Scott Kinney. “Unlike other digital interactives on the market, Pivot Interactives explores concepts using real-life experiments, not animations, allowing teachers to include phenomena-based learning at any stage of the learning cycle. Through our acquisition of Pivot Interactives, Discovery Education is now better positioned to broaden our impact by providing our partner school systems access to phenomena-based, active learning tools.”

Peter Bohacek, Chief Executive Officer of Pivot and physics teacher, and Matthew Vonk, Chief Science Officer for Pivot and physics professor, founded Pivot Interactives by developing a library of interactive video-based activities funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The co-founders began working with their own students to develop direct measurement videos that allow teachers and students to break out of classroom constraints.

Now, teachers worldwide are using Pivot Interactives to engage over 1 million students with phenomena and science practices. Under the Discovery Education family of services, Pivot Interactives’ award-winning platform will continue innovating to revolutionize science education.

“We’re thrilled to be joining the Discovery Education family,” said Mr. Bohacek. “Back in 2012, I began to experiment with integrating interactive video into my classroom practice. The results were so promising, I was compelled to continue to explore how to expand the capability of interactive video and that led to the founding of Pivot Interactives. I am excited about this next chapter and the opportunity to scale the impact of these resources.”

“The Pivot Interactives team shares Discovery Education’s mission to prepare all learners for future success, and I believe that as part of Discovery Education we will be in an even better position to improve science education across the country and around the world,” said Mr. Vonk. “Echoing Peter’s sentiments, we’re excited to join Discovery Education.”