On August 16 rSmart Group Inc. announced securing funding from Asahi Net Inc., GSV Capital Corp., and private investors. GSV investment advisor Michael Moe expressed confidence in the firm saying “rSmart is helping universities realize lower total cost of ownership and higher quality products that are easy to use. Most importantly, rSmart’s customers are becoming part of a sustainable, collaborative movement using solutions built by higher education for higher education. GSV wants to be part of this movement, and rSmart is the company to make it happen.”
rSmart is a more mature and experienced company than the 26 others who presented at the “sold out” April “Education Innovation Summit.” GSV Advisors and Arizona State University hosted the third annual Summit with presentations on innovation and by new companies seeking to enter the education market. (Presentations are available here; rSmart’s presentation is available here and here). rSmart has participated in the Kuali and Sakai open source software initiatives to meet the needs of colleges and universities. Moe lists open source as a major trend in education. rSmart also has had an international presence teaming with Asahi Net Inc. and its U.S. subsidiary in cloud services. rSmart Chairman John Robinson is a visionary with 35 years experience with innovative higher education software technology. rSmart is one of the first to contribute to software architecture that spans both administration and learning using current software design techniques and technology—a goal of the Kuali Foundation.
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