SAN MATEO, CA--(Marketwire - Jun 27, 2012) - Rafter™, the leader in Course Materials Management, today announced it has acquired the education technology of HubEdu, which provides textbook adoption, comparison shopping and pricing technology to schools to help them better serve their students. The Rafter Course Materials Network will bring HubEdu's capabilities to hundreds of schools to better serve millions of students and help lower the cost of education.
The move accelerates Rafter's strategy of aggregating and integrating the most innovative technology solutions to provide a single, cloud-based platform that reduces the cost of education for students.
"The majority of students who begin college don't graduate and the reason they don't graduate is cost," said Mehdi Maghsoodnia, CEO of Rafter. "Course materials are the second highest college expense behind tuition. We're empowering our partner schools to better serve their students and reduce their cost of education by bringing world-class technology and analytics to educators, administrators and college stores. The HubEdu team shares our vision of using technology to make education more affordable and effective, and we are excited to have them join our team at Rafter."
HubEdu offers cloud-based services that improve the processes of textbook adoption, distribution, pricing and comparison shopping. Schools running on Rafter are already reversing past declines and winning the battle for price, selection and service for their students. With this acquisition, Rafter will be integrating HubEdu's services into the Rafter Course Materials Network, providing schools with even more tools to continue to gain back market share.
"Course Materials Management is a complex process to automate because it involves every constituent on campus," said Michael Geller, vice president of marketing for Rafter. "The Rafter Course Materials Network is the only complete solution addressing the needs of educators, school administrators and students. And it's working -- schools that run on Rafter are reversing a decade-long trend of declining market share by providing their students better service and better prices on course materials."
"We're thrilled to be joining the Rafter team to help bring our products to millions of students and hundreds of schools," said Jonathan Simkin, founder and CEO of HubEdu. "As part of a unified platform we look forward to supporting faculty, administrators, stores and schools helping to lower the cost of education for their students."
In 2012, Rafter evolved out of leading textbook rental website BookRenter.com, which continues to help students save hundreds of millions of dollars by renting textbooks online, as well as enabling them to pick up and return textbooks at any local campus store on the Rafter Network.
About Rafter
Rafter is an education technology company and the leader in course materials management. The Rafter Course Materials Network™ is a cloud-based software suite that enables schools to significantly improve the affordability, effectiveness and accessibility of their educational materials. The Rafter Network leverages the latest technology to connect students, educators, administrators and content providers -- changing the course content experience from a burden to a rewarding process for all constituents. Rafter partners directly with hundreds of schools to improve the educational experience for students. Rafter owns and operates BookRenter.com, a destination site for students to rent and buy textbooks at up to 80 percent off. To date, Rafter has saved millions of students more than $185 million and counting. Rafter, headquartered in San Mateo, CA, is a privately held company. To learn more visit www.rafter.com.
About HubEdu
HubEdu is a cloud-based education technology platform that helps schools improve the processes of textbook adoption, distribution, pricing, and shopping. HubEdu's software solutions can help students save up to 75% on college textbooks while simultaneously increasing school revenues by optimizing store pricing and sourcing. HubEdu is headquartered in San Diego, CA, and is a privately held company.
Contact Information:
Contact info:
Sara Schulte or Aly Brady
415-625-8555
rafter@launchsquad.com