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Friday, November 15, 2013

Money pours into eTextbooks

Six million-plus poured into Gutenberg books

As an independent researcher, I use Gutenberg eBooks all the time, and bless them constantly.

Therefore, I'm delighted to learn that more money is being devoted to this cause -- and this despite deafening lack of interest from academia.

Perhaps it is because the teachers would prefer their students to use the textbooks they have written themselves?

Press release, from DBW

MOBILE LEARNING INNOVATOR GUTENBERG TECHNOLOGY CLOSES $6.5M ROUND B FINANCING

Gutenberg Technology, the European leader of textbooks on tablets and smartphones, announces the completion of its $6.5 million Round B financing. BNP Paribas, one of the TOP 10 worldwide banks, took the most significant part in this funding together with Gutenberg Technology’s historical investors.

This new funding will enable the start-up, with offices in New York and Paris, to expand its footprint in North America, acquiring new clients and building long-term, strategic partnerships. The company has already signed premier logos like Pearson and Hachette Book Group.

The educational technology company plans to extend its digital book production platform MyEbookFactory 5.0 which has found wide adoption in the textbook market, to other publishing segments such as travel guides, cookbooks and professional training books. In this context, they have recently inked a partnership with celebrity chef Alain Ducasse to help him become a worldwide leader of cookbooks on tablets and smartphones.

Additionally, Gutenberg Technology is revolutionizing the e-learning industry by adding MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) features to the MyEbookFactory 5.0 production platform. These new features will facilitate scalable, industrialized production of MOOCs & e-learning courses.

“After almost 3 years of R&D, we now offer publishers a unique tool to solve their digital issues,” says François-Xavier Hussherr, founder and New-York based CEO of Gutenberg Technology. “Our goal is to empower our clients to take control over their digital book production workflow.”

“We decided to invest in Gutenberg Technology,” explains Jean-Michel Gabriel, CEO of BNP Paribas Développement, the investment entity of BNP Paribas, “because we believe that the education market will be undergoing massive transformations in the coming years,
and Gutenberg Technology has the team and the technology to take full advantage of this change.”

About Gutenberg Technology

Launched in 2010, Gutenberg Technology is a technology company that provides publishers with a SaaS solution called MyEbookFactory 5.0, enabling them to enrich content and create interactive ebooks and custom branded apps for all electronic devices (iOS, Android, Windows 8, web) as well as print. Using custom branded apps, publishers have a single store on iOS and Android and would have control over licensing and payment.

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas Developpement, subsidiary of Groupe BNP Paribas, is a leader in venture capital with more than 25 years of experience and a team of more than 20 professionals. It’s current portfolio includes 320 investments totaling Euro500Million. BNP Paribas Developpement’s perspective is to take minority stakes in small and medium-sized companies with a view to being part of their long term growth strategy.

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