Amira Learning and Istation merge to lead AI-driven education sector

Amira Learning and Istation have announced their merger, forming a powerful new entity in the field of AI-driven education. 

Amira Learning, known for its AI-powered reading assistant, and Istation, a leader in adaptive digital learning, are combining their strengths to create innovative solutions for literacy education. 

The merger will leverage Amira's speech recognition technology and Istation's distribution network and content platform. The strategic move is set to increase their market share to 15% of the K-12 education sector.

Mark Angel, CEO of Amira, said: 

"Every generation learns to read in a way that mirrors the time. Long ago, it was ‘Dick & Jane’ readers. Then, it was ‘Sesame Street’ on TV. But, we’ve always struggled to help every child become a motivated and masterful reader.

“With Istation, we have multiplied scale and deepened experience in a way that will get our technology to more schools and classrooms and make a real difference in the lives of children.”

Istation's platform for assessment has been used by more than 1,000 districts, providing content and resources for teachers. Amira's AI technology will extend Istation's offerings, with Istation continuing to operate independently.

 Dick Collins, CEO of Istation, who will transition into a new role as Co-Chairman of the Board, stated: 

“Amira Learning has the most sophisticated speech recognition for elementary students in the world, ahead of Amazon, Google, and other giants.

On top of that, the intelligence of the software using AI as backbone enables a life-like interaction for young students to feel like they’re being individually coached by a sophisticated reading tutor. Combining this with our deep go-to-market expertise and the trust we’ve earned from educators is a perfect match.”

Amira Learning has developed the first intelligent reading assistant that listens to students as they read out loud, assesses mastery, ensures comprehension, and delivers personalised tutoring to accelerate reading mastery.

 Founded by former engineers and executives from Pearson, IBM, ACT, and Renaissance, Amira Learning builds on 20 years of research from Carnegie Mellon University. 

The company has achieved significant milestones, including exceeding 10 billion spoken words with students globally, thus refining its Large Language Model (LLM) to understand various accents and dialects. Integrating this data with Istation’s extensive content library, which includes thousands of video-based lessons and teacher resources, marks a new era in educational technology.