Folsom-based PowerSchool Holdings Inc. has acquired Baltimore-based Allovue, which offers a suite of software for budgeting and management for K-12 administrators.
Cloud-based K-12 education software company PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC) said the addition of the financial planning and analytics software company complements its suite of online products for education and school administration.
"The acquisition of Allovue underscores our commitment to empowering education leaders as they navigate the complex landscape of education finance," said PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati, in a news release. "As federal stimulus funding winds down, budget management, impact analytics and budget transparency become even more critical in K-12."
The value of the acquisition was not disclosed.
Allovue was founded in 2013 by Jess Gartner, a former middle school teacher, to help schools budget, manage and evaluate spending. Gartner was selected in 2015 as one of the Baltimore Business Journal’s 40 under 40 executives. She was 28 at the time.
Gartner will join PowerSchool as group vice president of enterprise resource planning.
"We’re teaming up with PowerSchool because I know our combined resources and partnership will meet the needs of education leaders and students better than we can alone," Gartner said in a post on LinkedIn. “Allovue’s vision is that every dollar in education works for every student. We have not fulfilled this vision yet, but I invite you to join us in the effort for the next decade.”
Allovue grew during the pandemic as more schools sought out technology solutions. Its staff grew from 25 people in 2019 to 42 people by early 2023, according to the Baltimore Business Journal, an affiliated paper of the Sacramento Business Journal.
The Allovue deal is PowerSchool’s 21st acquisition in eight years.
In October, PowerSchool completed the $300 million acquisition of SchoolMessenger, a provider of communications tools for the K-12 market. It was PowerSchool’s second acquisition last year, following its purchase in September of Neverskip, an education technology platform with 1.2 million students in India. That was PowerSchool’s first acquisition outside the U.S.
PowerSchool launched in 1997, offering online tracking of grades and attendance. Over the years, it's added more functionality and modules to support school administrators, teachers, parents and students. PowerSchool now has 20 products, and it supports 50 million students in more than 90 countries and more than 16,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 school districts by student enrollment in the U.S.
PowerSchool became a publicly traded company through an initial public offering in 2021 that netted the company $766 million.
