Staff of Promethean, a subsidiary of Elernity, interact with the audience at an exhibition of educational equipment in January last year. (Photo provided to China Daily)
Elernity has acquired 100 percent stakes in firms such as London-listed Promethean, which specializes in combining hardware and software solutions. For instance, its interactive whiteboards called ActivBoards come with exclusive ClassFlow software.
When Elernity acquired Promethean, the latter's products were being used already in over 100 countries and regions and in 1.3 million classrooms globally.
The acquisition has provided parent NetDragon with a strong brand, global sales and marketing channels. It also helped Promethean come out of losses and post a profit. Promethean's 2017 profit was 53 million yuan, a rebound from a loss of 50.6 million yuan in 2016.
At the time of the takeover by Elernity, Jim Marshall, then CEO of Promethean, said: "We're extremely excited to join NetDragon where we will be able to continue our mission of empowering students and teachers by encouraging them to engage, interact and collaborate."
Promethean is now implementing a digitalization project in Moscow, which is expected to benefit 7,600 classrooms and serve 14,500 teachers when finished.
NetDragon has also acquired Cherrypicks Alpha, an augmented reality or AR service provider, and established a joint venture called ARHT Media to bolster its competiveness in applications of VR and AR in education and entertainment.
"The world is unfair in terms of education resources as a great many developing countries lag behind in education quality, not to mention education embedded with technologies. However, it's also where we can engage in," said Xiong.
He also said a lot of countries have a strong desire for improving education quality and efficiency, which presents both opportunities and challenges for Elernity.
"In the future, we hope to cooperate more with the governments of these countries to leverage technology in education and promote education equity on a global scale."
