School software company PowerSchool Holdings Inc. is opening an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to accelerate its sales to countries in the Middle East and Africa.
Folsom-based PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC) has offices in the U.S., Canada and India, and many of its employees work remotely all over the country.
“The United Arab Emirates is one of our focus areas,” PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati told the Business Journal.
PowerSchool has more than 300,000 students using its technology at public, private and charter schools in the Gulf region, and the governments in the Middle East have been willing to invest in school technologies, he said.
The company is opening its Middle East office for sales and support in the region.
Customers in the Gulf states have been embracing the various technologies PowerSchool provides, with some of them using 10 or more modules of the company's 19 offerings, which include cloud-based products for teachers, educators, administrators, students and parents.
PowerSchool has customers in 90 countries, and it's one of the few education platforms that can operate in multiple languages, Gulati said.
Current Emirates PowerSchool customers include Al Ittihad National Private Schools, Liwa Education, Aldar Education, ESOL and the American International School in Abu Dhabi.
"As our global customer base grows, it’s critical we build the capacity to help power our customers’ digital transformation needs," Gulati said.
PowerSchool supports more than 45 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers.
In the first half of last year, PowerSchool’s cross-selling of different products to existing customers grew the fastest in the company’s history, much of that driven by customers who use more than four products.
PowerSchool software is used to support school administrators with programs that eliminate manual processes for everything from daily attendance to counseling to grades. The company also provides an online platform for virtual learning, and offers support to teachers, parents and students with online lesson plans. PowerSchool offers analytics and assessment products, as well as career counseling and college search.
Started in 1997, PowerSchool has expanded with more than 14 acquisitions in the past six years that have added products and customers to its platform. PowerSchool’s initial public offering of stock in 2021 raised $766.1 million, net of underwriting costs and commissions, and was the largest IPO by a Sacramento-area company in memory.
PowerSchool has more than 3,000 employees, and its workers have returned to some extent to the office after more than a year of remote working. Just prior to the pandemic, the company's Folsom headquarters office was becoming crowded, and the company was looking for more nearby office space. With mixed remote and in-person attendance, the company likely won't need more headquarters space for a few more years, Gulati said.
