WoodWing Holding Invests in e-Learning Software Startup SOWISO

ZAANDAM, The Netherlands, June 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

WoodWing Holding, the parent company of WoodWing Software, has invested in  SOWISO, a startup software company based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. SOWISO develops innovative e-learning technology for mathematics and related exact sciences. Its revolutionary cloud-based e-learning platform enables publishers and universities to create intelligent e-learning solutions that fit the education requirements of the digital world. SOWISO is a spin-off company of the  Eindhoven University of Technology, which continues to be engaged as a shareholder and mentor.

With an investment in the company, WoodWing Holding is now a substantial minority shareholder of SOWISO, aiming to boost its growth both with funding and the knowledge of building and operating an international software company. SOWISO will operate completely independent from WoodWing Software and its regional subsidiaries.

The cloud-based e-learning platform developed by SOWISO is perfectly suited for complete e-learning courses and massive open online courses (MOOC) - cloud-based courses aimed at large-scale interactive participation. All courses consist of theory, exercises and tests. The many features offered to support the learning process include extensive progress reports for both teachers and students.

The system is adaptive and helps students of different levels and didactic preferences by providing an optimal learning path. The software provides feedback on the answers entered by the students. The system not only detects errors, but also recognizes what the error is; most other e-learning tools are limited to multiple-choice questions and binary correct/wrong feedback.

The platform features an authoring tool that enables authors or teachers to create, manage and publish interactive e-learning content. Without the need for software programming knowledge, they can create interactive exercises. Leveraging HTML5, the system works on personal computers, tablets and smartphones - users do not need to install any software on their device.

The system is already in use at the University of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Amsterdam General Hospital, the Belgian publishing company De Boeck, and more.

"This strategic partnership will help SOWISO to accelerate its business, both domestically and across the border," said Marc Habbema, one of the founders of SOWISO. "We are eager to expand so that students and teachers worldwide can benefit from our advanced e-learning technology for the exact sciences. We are looking forward to the future with WoodWing."

"In order to stay competitive in the global economy, countries have to turn their education upside down to prepare the next generations for a digital and global world," said Erik Schut, Board Member of WoodWing Holding. "We are very impressed with SOWISO's e-learning technology and platform, which allows much better and personalized education. We are pleased to help SOWISO make a change in the global education market."

Logical move in an effort to support the education sector

Early this year, WoodWing Software launched a digital publishing initiative for the education sector, aimed at supporting textbook publishers to meet the challenges and opportunities of producing digital textbooks for schools.

In its efforts in the educational sector, WoodWing can leverage extensive experience - its multi-channel publishing system Enterprise is already in use by major textbook publishers worldwide. WoodWing´s Digital Publishing Tools for Adobe InDesign enable textbook publishers to easily enhance the digital versions of their books with a high level of interactivity. For easy management of the growing collections of media files such as images, animations and videos, WoodWing also offers a digital asset management solution, Elvis DAM, which is tightly integrated with Enterprise.

About WoodWing Software

WoodWing Software develops and markets a premier, cost-efficient multi-channel publishing system, Enterprise, and the next generation digital asset management system, Elvis DAM. WoodWing's solutions are aimed at magazine and newspaper publishers, corporate publishers, agencies and marketing departments to reach their goals for quality, economy and time-to-market.

WoodWing's publishing system Enterprise - including the editorial management application Content Station - coordinates and streamlines the process of creating, managing and publishing static, dynamic and interactive content for all media channels - print, Web, social, smartphones and tablets. Elvis DAM enables users to securely store and efficiently manage the increasing collection of rich-media files.

WoodWing Software, founded in the year 2000, has its headquarters in Zaandam, The Netherlands, and has regional sales offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Customers are served locally by over 90 selected partners in more than 100 countries. WoodWing's long-standing relationship with Adobe as a Technology Partner and its close cooperation with a large number of other technology vendors worldwide, confirm WoodWing's position as one of the leading suppliers of publishing software. WoodWing is a privately owned company, with all founders actively engaged. Additional information regarding WoodWing's products and services can be found at http://www.woodwing.com.

Press contact:
Stefan Horst
PR Manager WoodWing Software
T: +49-151-12 72 63 62
E: sho@woodwing.com

More information about SOWISO:
Marc Habbema
T: +31-20-7520 000
M: +31-6-46 112 535
E: m.habbema@sowiso.nl