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After raising $100 million<\/a> at a valuation of over $2 billion last year, the Australian ed-tech startup Go1<\/a> is making an acquisition and getting some investment to expand its reach and technology to serve the market of corporate online learning.<\/p>\n First, it is snapping up Blinkist<\/a>, a startup out of Berlin that had built a platform to discover and read abbreviated versions of longer non-fiction books \u2014 \u201cBlinks\u201d that typically take no more than 15 minutes to read or listen to.<\/p>\n Second, while financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed by the two companies, but we have confirmed other details with Go1\u2019s co-CEO and founder Andrew Barnes: the acquisition is a mix of cash and shares. And it will also involve Blinkist\u2019s biggest investor, Insight Partners<\/a>, taking an additional $30 million in equity in Go1 at an \u201cupround,\u201d but again with the exact numbers not being discussed.<\/span><\/p>\n The two platforms will continue to operate separately but over time, the plan is for more integration and cross-selling between the two, the companies said. It will also be working to bring newer currents in technology to bear on the wider platform, such as the incorporation of more AI into Blinkist\u2019s text-summarization process, and \u2014 tapping Blinkist\u2019s app format \u2014 providing a wider range of options for delivering courses to Go1 users.<\/p>\n \u201cB2B has been our bread and butter, something Blinkist had just started moving into,\u201d Barnes said in an interview. But on the other hand, he noted that \u201cBlinkist has very high user engagement,\u201d something Go1 wants to improve in its app. \u201cWe worked out last year that what we want to do they\u2019d already done, and we\u2019d done what they wanted to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Blinkist has had 25 million downloads of its app and has just under 1 million paying users, including some 1,500 companies. Go1 \u2014 which is backed<\/a> by the likes of Salesforce and Microsoft, but also Softbank \u2014 says that it has 8 million users, with big customers including Delta, Hays, Westpac and energy giant EDF, using its e-learning platform, which provides a curated catalog of training and professional development courses, tens of thousands in all.<\/p>\n Blinkist\u2019s last valuation was $160 million in 2018<\/a>, when it raised $18.8 million and the company is \u201csignificantly bigger\u201d than it was then, Barnes said.<\/p>\n