Google Capital’s Third Investment: Renaissance Learning

By Trey Thoelcke Published Feb 19, 11:20AM EST

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Google Capital has made its third investment. Renaissance Learning, an education technology start-up, said on Wednesday that Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) investment fund had acquired a minority stake in the company for $40 million.

Google Capital’s previous investments came in 2013: in online surveys provider SurveyMonkey, as part of a large debt and equity round, and in Lending Club, a peer-to-peer lending platform. Google Capital was formed in 2013 to invest in late-stage technology start-ups, and it is run by David Lawee, who used to head up mergers and acquisitions (M&A) at Google.

Privately owned Renaissance Learning provides cloud-based education software. The company says its reading and assessment tools are used by nearly 20 million students and teachers in some in 40,000 schools.

Gene Frantz of Google Capital said:

For many educators, the question is not whether to embrace new technology, but how to embrace technology in a way that makes teachers’ lives easier and meaningfully boosts student achievement. Renaissance Learning is at the forefront of this educational movement, and their ability to use data to support effective teaching and drive student growth is unparalleled.

Bloomberg recently found that over the past three years Google has executed more deals than any company in the world. It was involved with 127 deals in that time, at a total value of $17.6 billion. Its M&A group is said to have expanded by at least 50% in the past two years.

Google Capital’s cousin, Google Ventures, focuses on funding early-stage start-ups. It led a $361.2 million investment in app maker Uber Technologies last year. Google Ventures was also a backer of e-reader platform start-up Subtext, which Renaissance Learning acquired back in August.

About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.