Clockwork Fox acquired by U.S. company
Carnegie deal with Clockwork Fox began with a Linkedin cold call
St. John’s-based Clockwork Fox, an education tech company and makers of Zorbit’s Math Adventure, has been bought by Carnegie Learning, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania education company.
The deal was finalized April 19.
It all started with a cold call in 2019 via the business social media platform Linkedin.
Ed Martin Jr., founder and CEO of St. John’s-based Clockwork Fox, was trying to figure out how to get the Zorbit’s math education program into the American market.
The company had really good traction with its product in Canada, said Martin, and they wanted to get a foothold in the U.S.
“It was actually a cold reach out through Linkedin . .. to the chief product officer for Carnegie. He didn’t get back to me right away but I poked at him a couple of times and eventually got a call with him.”
The premise of that call was to talk about distribution. But the conversation soon turned to something else.
“On that first call it just hit us both how philosophically aligned … and how complementary our companies were.”
Carnegie had a math software program for Grades 6-12 students but didn’t have anything for K-5 students. Clockwork had a program for K-3 students and was building a program for Grades 4-6.
“And they had a footprint in the U.S. and wanted to break into Canada, and we had a nice footprint in Canada and wanted to break into the U.S.,” said Martin.
Their particular skill sets also meshed quite well, said Martin. Clockwork brings the skill of game design and development, while Carnegie is well known for its adaptive learning systems.
“So it was just an amazing fit in so many ways,” said Martin.
In a news release on April 21, Barry Malkin, CEO of Carnegie Learning, said the two companies are joining at a time when educators need them most.
“This past year was extremely challenging for educators and students alike, and we’re here to support them in accelerating learning to get back on track. Zorbit’s Math is designed to give students the differentiated instruction they need to master key math skills, while keeping students truly engaged in their learning,” he said.
It’s been quite a journey for Martin, who started out as a game developer in 2011.
He never struggled with math himself.
“I was a bit of a chess nerd,” he chuckles.
Soon after starting his gaming company — and publishing his first game app — he realized there was an opportunity to marry the fun of gaming with a need for educational programs.
“The idea really came from an educator friend of ours who said ‘You really need to develop a math game because (digital) math games aren’t great.’”
Martin said when he started to research the space, he discovered there were a lot of math games that were really fun but weren’t good at teaching math or helping kids get better at math. And the games that focused on the principles of math weren’t fun to play.
“So we saw a real gap,” he said.
Zorbit’s Math Adventure was born in 2014.
Clockwork Fox had some help along the way.
Martin credits angel investors in Newfoundland and Labrador for making it possible for the startup to get off to a good start.
“Our very first angel investor was Paul Antle, who was very instrumental for us in those early days as we were turning into a startup,” he said.
Other support came from business heavyweights like Iris Petten of Petten Holdings and Mark Dobbin of Killick Venture Capital.
Venture capital comes with extremely high expectations, said Martin, and building a company with venture capital is not for the faint of heart.
But there are also investors and allies like the Genesis Centre at Memorial University that can help innovators fine-tune ideas.
“There are so many amazing supports around tech startups here. That’s why you’re seeing so many great (tech) success stories coming out of this province.”
Zorbit’s Math Adventure is now being used by educators and students in every province in Canada.
The acquisition by Carnegie will now bring the game to a larger U.S. audience, and introduce Carnegie’s lineup of learning resources to Canadian customers.
Martin said the acquisition will not mean any major changes for the day-to-day operations in St. John’s, and there will be no layoffs.
The 34 people who work for Clockwork Fox will continue to do the work they’ve been doing, said Martin.
The St. John’s office will be responsible for sales, marketing and customer support in Canada. It will also be a hub for digital product development, in particular for interactive web-based software such as Zorbit’s Math.
Its team is developing a new math experience for students called Mathstoria which expands their offering into grades 4-6.
Martin would not divulge the price Carnegie paid for Clockwork Fox, or whether he would still hold any controlling shares.
“I can’t really speak to any of the financial details,” he said.
He did say, though, the acquisition doesn’t change his focus or personal goals for the company.
“I have the exact same personal goals. We’re a missiondriven company, focused on impact,” Martin said.
“This is just an opportunity to take the impact we’ve been having in Canada and grow it on a global scale.”