Image credit: Prosus
Prosus — the international assets holding arm of South African multinational Naspers, has announced today that it has acquired a majority stake in GoodHabitz – a provider of online training for businesses. The deal was completed for approx €212M.
This news comes right after the Amsterdam-listed company struck a $1.8B (approx €1.5B) deal to acquire Stack Overflow, a Q&A website for professional and enthusiast programmers.
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Aim of this acquisition
Prosus said it plans to help the online corporate training leader to continue expansion into new markets. With this development, Founder and CEO of GoodHabitz, Maarten Franken, will continue to lead the company.
Franken claims to have vast experience in the edtech market, as he has previously founded and led another education-focused company. He also has a successful track record at GoodHabitz and will continue the company’s drive into new markets.
Speaking on the development, Larry Illg, CEO of Prosus, says, “If this past year has shown us anything it is that technology can fundamentally change a sector and enable it to scale much quicker, and this is especially true in learning and education. The future of workplace learning is rapidly evolving and the companies that can engage their employees in a digital environment successfully will do well moving forward. There is a significant need across businesses of all sizes to offer their people engaging, easy-to-consume training.
He further adds, “GoodHabitz has built a successful business delivering highly polished but fun content that meets that need perfectly and we are looking forward to helping the team expand the business further as part of Prosus.”
Help your employees in their personal development
Eindhoven-based GoodHabitz was founded in 2011 by Maarten Franken. The company provides enterprise clients with relevant cost-effective soft-skills learning content to their entire employee base.
Maarten Franken, CEO of GoodHabitz, says, “We look forward to becoming part of the edtech powerhouse that Prosus is building. Companies around the world face big challenges effectively educating their workforces, particularly now with the explosion in home working over the last 15 months. We hope to accelerate our international growth working with the Prosus team, helping more customers build a workforce that is ready for the future through enabling more people to access online training.”
Since its inception, GoodHabitz claims to have developed a strong enterprise client base in all market segments as it offers 150 courses in eight languages. From 2016, GoodHabitz has expanded from its original market in the Netherlands into nine further European markets and reported to be one of the few profitable, scale players in enterprise edtech in Europe.
Everything about Prosus
Prosus claims to build consumer internet companies that empower people and enriches communities. The group focuses on building meaningful businesses in the online classifieds, food delivery, payments and fintech, and edtech sectors in markets including India, Russia, and Brazil.
Since 2016, it has already committed more than $3B in the edtech sector. And, through its venture team, the firm invests in areas including health, logistics, blockchain, and social commerce. Prosus claims that it reaches 90 per cent of the Fortune 100 across its enterprise learning companies including GoodHabitz, Stack Overflow, Skillsoft, Udemy, and Codecademy.
Prosus has a primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam (AEX:PRX) and secondary listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (XJSE:PRX) and a2X Markets (PRX.AJ). The firm is majority-owned by Naspers – a South African multinational consumer Internet company headquartered in Cape Town.
A couple of years back, Prosus opened its global headquarters in Amsterdam post its Euronext listings. Prosus’s CEO Bob Van Dijk and members of the senior leadership team are based in The Netherlands. In addition to that, the South African company’s Product and Growth team and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning team are based out of Amsterdam too.
Besides the primary listing in Amsterdam, Prosus, a spin-off from Cape Town-based Naspers Ltd, has secondary listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and a2X Markets.
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