Wakelet bought digital portfolio maker Bulb to push deeper into edtech

Manchester-based content curation platform used by educators, students and professionals to capture, organise and present digital content

Wakelet graduated from Manchester's science incubator in 2018 and built a content curation platform it says is used by millions of educators, students and professionals, with customers including Harvard University, FC Barcelona and the Atlanta Hawks and a Microsoft Teams partnership.

Having established 'Wakelet for educators', Wakelet acquired Bulb, a digital portfolio provider used primarily by teachers and job applicants, with users in over 100 countries. Both platforms continue to function independently, and new customers are unaffected by the transition and can choose between them.

Wakelet had already established 'Wakelet for educators' and wanted specialist expertise to extend its edtech features.

Bulb added digital-portfolio specialists and a user base spread across more than 100 countries.

Khalil's stated rationale: digitised hiring makes showcaseable skill portfolios valuable, and schools are adopting them.

Both platforms run independently, so Wakelet can consolidate its edtech offering without forcing migrations.

Buying a specialist app can be a shortcut into an adjacent market — the target's user base across 100 education systems doubles as market research.

As of 3 April 2024 both platforms continued to run independently and new customers were unaffected, able to choose between Wakelet and Bulb. No financial terms of the acquisition were reported.