Cie’s venture studio leads another portfolio company to an accelerated exit

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —LINQ, a K-12 school management software provider, acquired Titan School Solutions (TITAN)TITAN has been a part of Cie’s venture studio for the past three yearsCie provided strategic focus, product innovation and financial leadership to accelerate TITAN’s growth and bring innovation to the school nutrition and EdTech market
Cie, a venture studio and innovation accelerator, announced today that LINQ acquired Titan School Solutions (TITAN) for $75 million. TITAN joined Cie’s venture studio in 2017 where Cie accelerated growth through strategic leadership, corporate development, scalable technology and business growth initiatives. TITAN is a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) school nutrition management provider which has grown into an industry-leader in school nutrition management solutions. “We’re proud of how TITAN has improved the school nutrition industry and the innovation they’re providing to LINQ,” says Anderee Berengian, Co-Founder & CEO of Cie who also served on TITAN’s Board of Directors. “Through three years of collaborative effort, Cie has helped TITAN become the school nutrition industry’s fastest growing SaaS provider with innovation unrivaled in the market.”“LINQ is focused on providing its customers the best-in-class solutions in the EdTech sector,” says LINQ CEO Krista Endsley. “Acquiring TITAN is an excellent opportunity to deliver K-12 school districts the innovative software solutions they need today and accelerate our growth into the future.” As a 100% cloud-based system, TITAN provides speed and ease previously inaccessible to school nutrition as it seamlessly supports personnel from district administrators to cafeteria workers, students and families. With Cie’s VC partners leading the Series A funding almost two years ago, TITAN is now implemented in over 700 districts and used by over 4 million students nationwide.After working in EdTech for a decade, Brad Blankenship, founder & President of TITAN, saw the need for innovation in nutrition services and set out to create it. Cie provided the strategy for accelerated growth and expanded vision for what the technology could accomplish. “What began as a way to bring efficiency to the school lunch line,” says Blankenship, “has evolved far beyond that because of Cie’s leadership in growing TITAN and expertise in architecting scalable technology.”For Cie, this acquisition is further proof-of-concept to how their venture studio pairings work. As a mix of seasoned entrepreneurs and digital innovators they are able to provide an unfair advantage to the startups they partner with—contributing strategic focus in growing startups and executing alongside founders in the trenches to accelerate growth, funding and market feedback. “We saw a lot of potential in TITAN’s initial product, market and founding team,” notes Berengian, “and what we’ve been able to achieve together in these past three years has provided the growth to launch TITAN into being true and long-lasting industry changers. It’s a great example of what Cie can accomplish in the startups we co-found.”About Cie
Cie is a venture studio that serves as an innovation lab and accelerator for new product and technology ventures.The Cie team is comprised of serial entrepreneurs who compress years of practical experience into the rapid development of startups. Leveraging the team’s strategic and operational expertise in technology, product development, brand building and customer acquisition, Cie consistently drives positive outcomes across a wide range of industries.Cie’s venture portfolio includes Cie Games (acquired by Glu Mobile), Nativo, ASAP Tire (acquired by Tire Rack), Titan School Solutions (acquired by LINQ), Performa Labs, Longève Brands and a growing list of emerging start-ups. Cie’s leadership team has served key roles at companies such as Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Overture, Nestlé USA and Internet Brands.Visit www.ciedigital.com to learn more.Contact Information
Cie, news@ciedigital.comAbout TITAN School Solutions
Titan School Solutions is the school nutrition industry’s fastest growing software as a service (SaaS) provider, assisting schools across the U.S. and internationally with the only 100% cloud-based resources on the market for management and operations. Founded in 2015, the TITAN Team includes education technology veterans, who work together with schools to develop and deliver industry-leading, web-based management solutions.About LINQ
LINQ delivers the only platform of fully-integrated solutions to help K-12 school districts better manage their operations. LINQ’s platform includes solutions for finance & human resources, nutrition management, digital payments, school and district websites, custom forms including student registration, and document management. LINQ has been serving the K-12 community for over 30 years.A photos accompanying this announcement are available athttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/751f4d58-74c4-4c37-988a-d19f68e99284https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/489742ed-7969-4c16-a86e-c4ac5450945fhttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/62db1304-ed2e-4c6e-88de-475ab5d03e59https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7546fd87-b41e-4525-bcc4-9c48b8ad1f43