Bonnier Becomes Sole Owner of Clio Online

Bonnier Sole Owner of Clio Online

The Danish e-learning success is now fully owned by Bonnier, and Jesper Eiby Christoffersen has been named new CEO.

Bonnier Business to Business has fully acquired the successful Danish tech company Clio Online, which in a few years has created exponential growth and established itself as a market leader for digital teaching materials. Bonnier has held a majority stake in the company since 2015.

Clio Online was born into a thriving culture of IT start-ups at the University of Copenhagen in 2006, and today, has a large customer base in both Sweden and Denmark. The publisher’s products are used by ninety percent of Danish primary and lower secondary schools, generating annual revenues of approximately DKK 100 million.

“Clio Online has evolved into one of the most widespread and innovative services on the market for digital teaching materials. We have every intention of continuing this development in step with the growing digitalization of schools in other countries,” states Karmo Kaas-Lutsberg, CEO of Bonnier Business to Business.

Since the company’s inception, the three founders, Lasse Guldsborg, Janus Benn Sørensen and Louise Herping Ellegaard, have worked together to steer the company through a period of exponential growth. Clio Online has been awarded multiple award and has launched close to a hundred learning portals and quiz products with subject-matter texts, educational activities and a wide range of interactive features.

The acquisition by Bonnier Business to Business means that the three founders will be departing the company they have headed for the past twelve years.

“Back at the University of Copenhagen, when we were planning the first concrete steps towards making the History portal that was to be Clio Online’s first product, we could not have imagined how successful it would become,” says Louise Herping Ellegaard, one of the three departing founders.

“We are proud of the company we have built, and of the development we have helped facilitate in Danish and Swedish schools. It is a strange feeling for us to part ways with our baby, but we are also excited about setting off on new adventures.”

In conjunction with the acquisition, Clio Online is getting a new CEO, Google’s former Head of SMB Marketing for Northern Europe, Jesper Eiby Christoffersen.

“Jesper Eiby Christoffersen has a lot of experience with setting digital agendas and creating growth from his time at Google. He is an exceptionally competent and ambitious leader, who will be capable of lifting Clio Online from its position as a Nordic market leader into the realm of global success,” says Karmo Kaas-Lutsberg.

“Clio Online is a very exciting company that has basically created the Danish market for digital teaching materials. It is also a company with enormous potential. Even though Scandinavia is already a leader when it comes to using digital content services to motivate students and facilitate better learning, a vast potential still remains to be tapped. Doing so is at the top of my agenda,” says Jesper Eiby Christoffersen.

“At the same time, it is a natural next step for the company to start introducing the many possibilities and advantages offered by our services to students and teachers in new markets.”

Clio Online is currently established in both Sweden and Denmark.