SALT LAKE CITY — Nov. 8, 2021 — Instructure Holdings, Inc. (Instructure) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Kimono, a leader in cloud-based data integration and interoperability for education. A long-time partner, and preferred integration solution of Canvas LMS, Kimono will be rebranded as Elevate Data Sync as it joins the Instructure Learning Platform. Elevate Data Sync is a solution built specifically for education that enables secure syncing of student, staff, and learning data across applications within a school environment.
“The acquisition underscores Instructure’s vision of building education’s most integrated platform and demonstrates our deep commitment to openness,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. “We want to give schools the freedom of choice to connect with their preferred applications. By incorporating Kimono’s adaptable, cloud-based integration and interoperability solution as Elevate Data Sync, we strengthen our ability to more seamlessly connect users with the applications they love.”
Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the team at Kimono has over 20 years of experience developing integration solutions for K-12 and higher education. The company serves six state education agencies, over 2300 districts, 27,000 schools and universities, and more than 16 million students globally.
The move extends Instructure’s learning data integration and rostering capabilities for student information systems (SIS). With bi-directional sharing, Elevate Data Sync ensures data, grades, and rosters stay synchronized between edtech applications and student information systems (SIS). Schools ensure the accuracy, security, and accessibility with complete control of their integrations-sharing only the data elements they choose and only with the applications they authorize. Because Elevate Data Sync is standards-agnostic, it supports industry-standard data models and protocols-such as OneRoster, LIS, SIF, APIs, and CSV-and also offers the flexibility to meet needs of schools and applications.
“We developed an adaptable, cloud-based platform that is the most comprehensive education interoperability solution available,” said Steve Curtis, CEO of Kimono. “Adding that technology to the Instructure Learning Platform will accelerate Instructure’s plans to provide broad support and deeper integration points to the platform for thousands of edtech providers globally. As a result, schools and higher education institutions will be further empowered to craft the digital learning environment that meets the unique needs of their students.”
The Instructure Learning Platform is an open, reliable, and extensible learning ecosystem enabling a digital learning environment for educators, students, and institutions. The platform is made up of several key pillars-such as learning management, assessment, and analytics -that work together to enrich, support, and connect every aspect of teaching and learning. Elevate Data Sync will be a vital part of the platform, driving interoperability and ease of use.
