Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Cambridge based Chalkface, set up in 1982, was independently identified as second only to Heinemann in its market in a recent authoritative ACT2 study and a back list of 400+ titles.

Chalkface prides itself on publishing firsts, including introducing DTP to book publishing (1985) and introducing print-on-demand (1992).

The company recognised the need to develop online content to supplement its existing range of paper-based products.

Its Paperless School offering is marketed as the only eLearning platform specifically designed for the school environment. Paperless School has been chosen as the future direction for the company with more than £1m so far invested in its success. It is built on SQL, J2EE and XML with the capability to handle millions of simultaneous users.

The company recently launched Yacapaca, a leading edge online assessment product for secondary schools and is developing Automarker for the automatic marking of essays (with statistical outputs for performance tracking), based on computational and psycho-linguistics.

CEO Ian Grove-Stephensen said: “There are great opportunities for our innovative approach to delivering content to schools. This funding will enable us to develop them.

“PEM Corporate Finance helped us to present the company and to approach the bank in the best way to secure the funding.”