Learning Pool acquires Paper Bag

Learning Pool, the fast growing e-learning company based in Derry, has announced today the acquisition of Paper Bag, the mobile apps development agency with offices in Belfast and London. Learning Pool will use this acquisition to accelerate the delivery of mobile services to its 300 plus customers, while also extending its reach across new product areas.

Learning Pool’s Mary McKenna & Paper Bag’s Gary Gallagher

Speaking about the acquisition, Learning Pool’s co-founder Paul McElvaney said, “We’re delighted to be able to bring the Paper Bag team into our portfolio. We’ve been impressed at what this startup has achieved and we are confident that the expertise and talent in Paper Bag can help us bring truly innovative solutions to our customers. Mobile learning is clearly a growth area and many of our competitors are struggling to get to grips with the useful offerings in this space. This acquisition gives Learning Pool the opportunity to jump to the forefront of mobile learning and we’re really excited about the opportunity that this brings”.

Learning Pool will help its customers train more than one million people this year on its learning platform and customers continue to enjoy significant cost savings and clear return on investment by using these services.

Learning Pool’s strategy for mobile is to use this technology to underpin performance improvement for its customers and the acquisition of Paper Bag is a major step along that journey. Paul McElvaney said,“ Our customers are serious about managing their talent and improving performance in a proactive and efficient way. Increasingly this means providing just in time, just enough training to people no matter where they are. Our strategy is to extend our platform to make this easy to do and we’re excited about bringing solutions to our customer base with Paper Bag’s help”.

Gary Gallagher, co-founder at Paper Bag added, “Having the backing of an organisation like Learning Pool will enable Paper Bag to do what it does best – building great enterprise apps that will make a genuine impact for customers and pushing the boundaries of a mobile landscape that is dynamic and ever changing. The roadmap for developments alongside the Learning Pool team is really exciting and we’re confident we can deliver great things in this arrangement”.

Paper Bag will retain its own brand identity and will begin recruiting into the team very soon.

About Learning Pool
Learning Pool was set up in 2006 by Mary McKenna and Paul McElvaney. The company provides online learning services including hosted software, content and tools to more than 300 organisations in the UK.  In 2013 more than one million people will do job related training provided by the company. Learning Pool employs 50 people and has just moved into new offices in Derry’s historic City Factory. Learning Pool has been recognised by the Deloitte Fast 50 as one of the fastest growing technology companies in Ireland and the UK in each of the last four years.

About Paper Bag
Paper Bag is a London & Belfast based mobile application development agency set up in 2009 by Gary Gallagher and Stuart Mackey.  Paper Bag works with companies all over the world providing mobile strategy, user experience and development services.