‘Changing the way the world learns english’

Updated: October 4, 2016 by Gurinder Sandhu

Lingo Media Investment Opportunity

Lingo Media boasts a SaaS eLearning platform which integrates education and technology, empowering educators to easily transition from paper-based learning to digital learning. The flexibility of LingoMedia’s platform sets the company apart. Users can easily create, convert, edit and arrange lessons as they see fit and data collection allows for significant learning improvements.




ELL Technologies

ELL Technologies is the Digital Edtech unit for Lingo Media. This unit represents eLearning solutions for academic institutions, corporate clients, and government agencies in Latin America and Asia. The unique factor for Lingo Media in ELL is providing contextual based training, achievement tests, compliance with SCORM (e-learning standards), and interactive lessons. Lingo Media is continually acquiring, developing and refining flexible and innovative English learning solutions for changing needs. Lingo Media serves 20M learners in over 10 countries with ELL.



Lingo Learning

Lingo Learning is the print-based publisher of English learning in China. Lingo Media has formed successful relationships with key government and industry organizations, establishing a strong presence in China’s education market of more than 300M students. This textbook-based publishing unit has 350 program titles and components to choose from, and has co-published over 550M units which have plenty of growth with a large amount of titles in range. The Company is extending its global reach, with an initial market expansion into LatAm and continues to expand its product offerings and technology applications.

Recent Developments

Lingo Media Announces Q2 2016 Financial Results

• Lingo Media announces revenues of $1,549,397
• Net profit of $631,183 or $0.02 per share
• Significant cash generation this quarter allowed for:
  • Investing $1M in improving digital content
  • Cash and cash equivalents increased to $1.5 million as compared to $409,000 as of December 31, 2015.
  • Book value increased by $3 million to $7 million or $0.21 per share as of June 30, 2016 as compared to December 31, 2015
• Operating expenses for the period ended June 30, 2016 totalled $495,282 compared to $422,569 in 2015, a 17% increase reflecting sales and marketing efforts.
• Current ratio improved to 4.68:1 for the period ended June 30, 2016 as compared to 2.86:1 as at December 31, 2015.
• Total liabilities as at June 30, 2016 totalled $629,212 as compared to $1,186,167 as at December 31, 2015, an improvement of $556,955 after loans payable of $580,000 were repaid in full and retired.

CEO stated: “Lingo Media continues to increase its investment in its sales management and marketing efforts. During the quarter, we focused on expanding our sales network, including new partnerships with Telefonica in Peru and Gale Cengage globally. Additionally, we are making progress in opening new markets beyond Latin America including Asia, where we are beginning to generate incremental revenues from our suite of digital learning products.”

LingoMedia Appoints Former Rosetta Stone Executive to Lead

Lingo Media announced the appointment of Laurent Glorieux, MBA, as Senior Sales Director leading the Company’s growth strategy in Asia, North America and the Middle East. Formerly Sales Director, Global Resellers at Rosetta Stone and Sales Director at Tell Me More S.A., Mr. Glorieux is an entrepreneurial leader with 16 years of experience in propelling double and triple-digit growth in business-to-business, international software sales.

Prior to joining Lingo Media, Mr. Glorieux was Sales Director, Global Resellers for Rosetta Stone, the market leading $218 million global education-technology developer of language, literacy and brain-fitness software where he built a global strategy, secured partner contracts and specifically led key growth initiatives in emerging markets. Mr. Glorieux also led an enterprise and education sales team in Latin America and the Caribbean achieving 50%+ sales increase in just one year.

LingoMedia Announces 2015 Fiscal Year-End Financial Results

For the year ended December 31, 2015:

• Revenue totaled $4,925,735 compared with $2,512,464 in 2014, a 96-per-cent increase.
• Operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2015, totaled $1,442,574 as compared with $1,332,823 in 2014, due to expanding operating activities, and servicing new customers and sales contracts.
• Net profit for the year was $2,532,057 as compared with a net profit of $144,013 in 2014, as a result of an increase in revenue of $2,413,271.
• Income before amortization, share-based payments, depreciation, finance charges and taxes was $3,483,161 compared with $1,286,079 in 2014

Telefonica Delivers ELL Technologies’ Scholar Program to Universidad de San Martin de Porres

Telefónica, a distribution partner of ELL Technologies, signed an agreement with the Universidad de San Martín de Porres, an institution with over 20,000 students and having its two main campuses in Lima and Chiclayo, Peru. The University will use ELL Technologies’Scholar English learning and training solution.

“Our partnership with Telefónica is progressing as anticipated and we are pleased to add the Universidad de San Martín de Porres to our growing list of university clients. Telefónica is making great strides in Peru and we are excited with the prospects of adding additional educational institutes throughout the country,” said Gali Bar-Ziv, COO of Lingo Media.

Telefonica Delivers ELL Technologies’ Scholar Program to CERTUS, a Leading Educational Institute

Telefónica signed an inter-institutional agreement with CERTUS, to promote digital education to their students through the delivery and implementation of Scholar program, a virtual English-language teaching platform. Among the 800 educational institutes in Peru, CERTUS is a differentiator in the higher education sector with its deployment of the latest technologies to enhance the educational experience for all its staff and students. CERTUS has more than 25,000 students across campuses in Lima, Arequipa and Chiclayo.

“Our partnership with Telefonica in Peru is based on their commitment to promoting and advancing the digital transformation of education in Peru,” commented Gali Bar-Ziv, COO of Lingo Media. “This contract is a resounding example of what this partnership can achieve and it is a strong endorsement of our software, to be adopted by CERTUS, a leader in Peru’s education sector.”

LingoMedia’s ELL Technologies Partners with Universidad Da Vinci to Teach English to Future Teachers in Ten States in Mexico

The teachers-in-training will learn English using ELL Technologies’ state of the art learning platform English for Success. Released in spring 2016 and including more than 1,000 hours of highly engaging content, English for Success has already been approved by government ministries in Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

Gali Bar Ziv, COO of Lingo Media commented: “We are very pleased to have partnered with the Universidad Da Vinci in Mexico. The university’s educational standard has been recognized by organizations and national agencies such as SEP, the Inter-Institutional Committees for the Evaluation of Higher Education and the National Council of Science and Technology. We look forward to expanding our relationship and programs with the Universidad Da Vinci.”

LingoMedia Enters into Global Distribution Partnership with Gale (Cengage)



Through this agreement, Gale will have exclusive international rights to market, sell and distribute ELL Technologies’ Scholar English language training program to university and college libraries, public libraries, and private schools. The product will be co-branded as “Gale Lingo” and will be available in Q2 2016.

Gale has been a leading provider of research and education resources to libraries for 60 years and is committed to supporting the continued innovation and evolution of libraries and their users. As Gale rolls out the Scholar program in many new international markets,Lingo Media maintains the distribution rights in North America, Latin America, Vietnam and the Caribbean.

“This partnership with one of the largest and most established educational content, technology and services companies in the world is further validation of the efficacy of our software in improving learning outcomes.” - Gali Bar-Ziv, COO of Lingo Media

“Gale has a tremendous international distribution network including a multinational sales force spanning Asia, Australasia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. This partnership with Gale holds great potential to expand the market for the Scholar program internationally and is a significant distribution milestone for Lingo Media.” - Michael Kraft, President & CEO of Lingo Media

Lingo Media enters into Distribution Partnership with Telefonica for Peru

Telefónica has been granted the rights to market, sell and distribute ELL Technologies’ full product suite of English language training products in Peru.

“After a long evaluation process of ELL Technologies, we have determined that the solutions which ELL Technologies’ offers are some of the best-in-class eLearning online courses for English training available on the market in Peru.” Marco Esparza Montejo, CEO of Telefónica Educación Digital in Peru.



Lingo Media Expands into Latin America with Strategic Hire

Lingo Media hired Luis Ortiz. Mr. Ortiz has more than 20 years of experience in sales and sales management in Latin America where he has been instrumental in delivering significant sales growth for his previous employers, Wi-LAN Inc. and SMART Technologies.

Most recently with SMART Technologies, Mr. Ortiz developed and implemented a successful channel program for Latin America that led the company to increase regional sales by over 100% per year from 2005 until 2013. He also increased the channel network from 10 to more than 75 channel partners, covering 17 countries in the region. Mr. Ortiz has significant experience negotiating large contracts directly with national governments and large institutions, including the largest education technology contract ever awarded by the federal government of Mexico.

Lingo Media Growth Profile

Lingo Media is committed to preparing graduates for the international workplace and to helping faculty advance an intercultural perspective.



Over the past 5 years Lingo has achieved a 19% CAGR. Lingo's key competitive advantage is in their ability to sell and distribute their technology. The top two executives, Michael Kraft and Gali Bar-Ziv both have expertise in creating sales channels and getting product out the door. This is why Lingo Media is building partnerships with institutions from around the world.

Lingo Media also benefits from being located in Toronto, one of the world’s most ethnically diverse centres of trade, culture and commerce. This proximity to a multicultural community provides invaluable practical experience in the creation of lesson plans and teaching ideas.

Importance of Gale Partnership

With its scale, educational publishing expertise, and existing relationships in international and domestic markets, Gale brings tremendous value to Lingo Media, particularly in the higher education space. It enables the company to expand the reach and impact for their mission to Change the way the world learns English.

“Gale’s focus is to create products that incorporate content with global relevance and appeal from our vast network of partnerships with leading institutions around the world,” said Terry Robinson, senior vice-president and managing director of Gale International.

“…with this new distribution agreement, we are pleased to broaden our offering by bringing to the library market the innovative learning techniques that Scholar provides.”



EdTech & ELL Technologies



EdTech includes everything from using computers or tablets in classrooms, to the submission of homework online, online class discussions, entire online degrees, mobile learning applications, data analytics or gamification.
However, EdTech is not just about reformatting books and training materials, or even about the individual technologies themselves. It is about applying digital technology to deliver a new form of learning. A personalized architecture that delivers individualized learning and training that can automatically adjust to an individual’s learning proficiency and that uses big data analysis to understand the most effective ways for learners to improve.

In changing the traditional architecture of education, EdTech has the power to create efficiencies, cut costs, enable new levels of standardization and unparalleled access. It is set to transform the future of how education is sourced, taught, consumed and, ultimately, the results that it can then yield – both for the individual and for society as a whole as we continue to build theknowledge economy.

ELL Technologies is Lingo Media’s Edtech Brand.

Lingo Media’s recent agreement with ISA Corporativo puts the ELL Technologies’ brand on high visibility in metro locations and bus stations accross Mexico. It intends to leverage this exposure to new subscriptions and the monetization of new users as adoption of the English language learning technology as course content increases and grows.
Michael Kraft, President & CEO of Lingo Media stated

“This advertising will provide significant exposure for our brand in Mexico to not just students, teachers, governments and corporations, but to the public at large. In exchange for licensing our ELL Technologies programs, we will receive advertising and exposure to millions of people as they travel through these transportation hubs every day. We believe this agreement will allow ELL Technologies to accelerate our brand awareness and enable greater long-term revenue growth as we receive extensive exposure. We look forward to becoming a market leader in Mexico and advancing our strategy throughout Latin American to secure additional new contracts.”

ISA Corporativo will also build and operate a website for consumers to purchase the products and ELL Technologies will collect royalties on subscription revenue generated from these sales.

EdTech in Latin America



As technology becomes an increasingly prevalent and a vital part of education, Lingo Media has identified Latin America as one of the prime target markets for growth. Team Members are working to secure additional contracts and continue building the sales pipeline across Columbia and Latin America.

With more than 600m people, smartphone penetration that is forecast to increase from 25% today to approx. 50% by 2018, an educational system that has fallen behind the developed world and a historical lack of accessibility, LatAm presents an interesting opportunity for those in the EdTech space and investors who believe that there are ideal conditions for innovative disruption in education and language learning.

More must clearly be done, given that Colombia scored near the bottom of the most recent international PISA tests. Still, the country showed clear progress in its most vulnerable schools in particular, and made improvements in areas such as teacher training that will be critical for the future.

The persistence shown by Colombia’s leadership is an example that hopefully the rest of the region can replicate. President Juan Manuel Santos has set an ambitious goal for his country, challenging it to become Latin America’s most educated country by 2025, re-emphasizing a long-standing, long-term goal of the Colombian government to develop a workforce equipped to compete in the globalized economy of the twenty-first century.



To achieve this goal, the government is committed to improving the language skills of the workforce, and over the last ten years has been building capacity and professionalizing the teaching and learning of English.

In Latin America, education is facing multiple challenges. Tremendous amounts of students are not finishing school – according to the Inter-American Development Bank, barely 40% graduate from the secondary school level across the region.

LingoMedia’s Latin America Strategy

Lingo Media strongly believes that it’s up to this challenge and will do whatever it can to enable more accessible and efficient language learning throughout the country.

In order to capitalize on this opportunity with EdTech in Latin America, Lingo Media has been investing in new product development and working hard to establish itself as a leader in the region. Members of the team have spent the last year securing our distribution channels and building our sales pipeline across Latin America.

SENA Contract for LatAm

On September 30th, 2015, Lingo Media announced that eDistribution S.A.S. – the online education services distribution company in Colombia that provides SENA with learning materials, had chosen Lingo Media as its principle supplier of digital learning resources pertaining to English Language Learning. As stated in Lingo’s press release, “Through this landmark agreement, eDistribution and ELL Technologies are poised to significantly increase learning and professional opportunities for as many as seven million citizens in Colombia.”

“In the context of Colombia, SENA aims at the improvement of foreign language levels of the Colombian people and SENA’s bilingualism project is particularly important since it has become necessary to boost both the quality and the competence of our learners. Finally, the use of digital content has become SENA’s benchmark in the implementation of best practices in the teaching and learning of foreign languages,” stated Mario Javier Rincon Triana, special and institutional project co-ordinator for SENA.

EdTech Industry

The Impact of EdTech on Costs

Worldwide, the combined education and training industries account for spending of more than $4 trillion, representing an 84% increase since 2000. Despite this, literacy and math scores have remained stagnant in the US, while it is estimated that 85 percent of every dollar spent on education is spent delivering it – teaching staff, support staff, physical buildings and facilities, etc.

The correlation between rising education expenditure and educational performance is therefore weak, and improving efficiencies and/or reducing the costs associated with traditional education delivery is a clear opportunity for EdTech and EdTech investors.

Traditional education systems are inherently inefficient.

This is particularly true for e-learning, which allow for the delivery of one-to-one or one-to-many on a completely new cost basis. Furthermore, the adoption of other technologies like the Cloud have facilitated policies like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in schools, allowing students to use their own equipment. As a result, less money is spent on hardware for schools – which currently makes up about 60 percent of IT budgets in the education space.

Improved user engagement and learning outcomes

By implementing EdTech initiatives in the classroom to augment traditional learning methodology and to create a blended learning environment, more money can then be allocated to educational elements such as smart learning software which provides personalized lesson plans, or innovative digital content such as engaging interactive materials which will improve learning outcomes..

The integration of multi-media, gamification, and mobile to Lingo Media’s ELL Technologies’ digital product suite makes its content increasingly immersive; designed to not only attract students but also keep them engaged. These learning solutions have been able to accelerate the learning process and have proven to be attractive and results oriented for users.

EdTech is also creating a stronger link between what happens in the classroom and outside the classroom (at home, in transit, etc.), making teacher-endorsed digital educational resources available at all times. This has shown to be particularly efficacious in developing nations where learning resources have historically been quite limited. By allowing students access to assignments and study materials beyond the classroom, this creates a continuum of touch points in the learning experience for students (and their parents, educators, etc.).

This is changing the way learners are consuming education in the same way Cloud technology has changed the way we consume music (i.e. iTunes or Spotify) and television (i.e. Netflix).



The benefits of big data and adaptive learning

The growth of EdTech has also provided teachers, assessors and parents with far greater access to data on individual strengths, weaknesses, achievements and overall progress.

The arrival of data analytics in education has driven adaptive learning, where data is fed back into the system to influence learning materials. Personalized learning programs are therefore able to be identified and created, bridging previous knowledge gaps that might have previously existed.

Unparalleled access to education

The importance of EdTech is also about the way in which it can equalize standards and enable access for all, resulting in the democratization of education where inequalities of latitude and longitude no longer matter.

Online platforms, mobile applications and new learning formats have drastically improved access to education, as well as enhancing the learning process itself. Immersive learning through gamification has proven to yield extremely successful results.

Now, an unfunded rural school can receive the same standard and depth of content as a well-funded one in a wealthier urbanized area. And this is true not just on a school by school or country by country basis, but globally; offering developing nations access to developed educational institutions, both in an academic and professional learning setting.

Reforming the world through education

The knowledge economy that we invest in for our children via the education system, right through to higher education and on-going, professional development and training is a fundamental support to the rest of our economic lives.

Without it we lose our ability to develop skilled workers, build competitive advantages as nations and generate growth.
To keep developing the knowledge economy we need to ensure, as with other sectors, that we maintain a level of innovation to improve the efficacy and efficiency of our learning systems and methodologies.

This is the importance of EdTech. This is what Lingo Media strives for.

EdTech as an Investment

2015 was actually a record-setting year for EdTech investment if you look at the total dollar figures. Investment analyst firm CB Insights noted, “the period from 2010 to 2014 saw more than a 503% growth in investment dollars.”

The 20 biggest financing deals of 2015 according to Hack Education:

1. Social Finance ($1 billion)
2. Earnest ($275 million)
3. HotChalk ($230 million)
4. Social Finance ($200 million)
5. TutorGroup ($200 million)
6. com ($186 million)
7. com ($157 million)
8. Udacity ($105 million)
9. 17zuoye and AltSchool (tied with $100 million each)
10. Xioazhan Jiaoyu ($84 million)
11. General Assembly ($70 million)
12. Udemy ($65 million)
13. Yuantiku ($60 million)
14. Civitas Learning ($60 million)
15. NetDragon Education ($52.5 million)
16. Genshuixue and Varsity Tutors (tied with $50 million each)
17. Coursera ($49.5 million)
18. Knewton ($47.25 million)
19. Ortbotix and Duolingo (tied with $45 million each)
20. littleBits ($44.2 million)

Other Notable Financial Statistics on Edtech Investments

Duolingo, a US-based language-learning website raised a total of $83.3M and is backed by investors such as New Enterprise Associates and Kleiner Perkins.

Udemy, which offers online courses has received $113M in financing and is backed by Insight Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners, among others.

“We think there’s a lot of opportunity and the education space is ripe for change and innovation. We continue to look aggressively at EdTech both in the region and across the country.” Robb Doub, general partner with New Markets Venture Partners in Fulton,

While education companies may not experience Uber’s hockey stick growth, an argument could be made that they are less volatile and have more predictable and proven business models and customers.

Rosetta Stone and Duo Lingo are innovating and disrupting the language training industry. Their products are mainly marketed to individuals and not institutions and therefore it's a different (self taught) section of the market that they're disrupting. Many students require the classroom environment in order to learn and therefore there isn't a big threat of disruption in Lingo's business.



Capital Markets Information

Shares Issued & Outstanding:35.4M
Fully Diluted:38.6M
Insider Ownership:20.17%
Share Price (Oct 4, 2016): $0.50
Market Cap: $7.7M
TTM P/E Ratio:7.15X*

*Based on 96% YoY revenue growth, and expected continued growth and predictable cash-flows, a 7.15x P/E ratio provides investors an attractive valuation for entry. I expect to see multiple expansion in LingoMedia’s stock as more revenue catalysts arrive.



Management Team

MICHAEL KRAFT – PRESIDENT & CEO

Visionary and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and corporate management, with a strong record of success in both public and private companies. Under Mr. Kraft’s stewardship, Lingo Media expanded its reach into the English language learning education market through a series of strategic acquisitions and transitioned from print-based publishing into online training.

GALI BAR-ZIV – CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Developed the brand strategies that grew product sales by 700% in his prior position. Turned around a $300 Million operating division of Fairfax Financial.

KHURRAM QURESHI – CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Chartered Accountant with more than 25 years of experience in the field of accounting and corporate finance. Held senior positions with several small to medium sized public companies, and was a key member of several merger and acquisition teams.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MICHAEL KRAFT

CEO Michael Kraft is also a Director.

THE HONOURABLE JERRY S. GRAFSTEIN, Q.C.

Co-Founder of a range of media companies, focused in broadcasting, cable, telecom, and publishing in Canada, South America, the UK and the US. He has served as an advisor to several key government ministries, including transportation, external affairs, consumer and corporate affairs, and justice.

MARTIN BERNHOLTZ, BBA, CA

Chief Financial Officer of Kerbel Group Inc. with extensive business experience in finance, real estate, emerging growth companies and public markets.

TOMMY WEIBING GONG

Founder of the energy saving clean tech leader Polar Bear Energy Inc., Chairman of Shanghai Green Town Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. and Zysteq North America Corporation both focused in real estate development in China.



Appendix

Figure 1: Quarterly Revenue



Figure 2: Quarterly EBITDA



Figure 3: Annual Revenue by Segment