Valore, Formerly SimpleTuition, Debuts New Brand Coming Off Record Year

BOSTON, Jan. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Valore, a collection of online education brands, today launched its new corporate identity that encompasses ValoreBooks, SimpleTuition and SmarterBucks. Formerly SimpleTuition, Inc., Valore has built a comprehensive set of tools and one of the biggest online textbook marketplaces designed to save millions of students money on textbooks and improve economics for the entire textbook value chain.

"Since launching SimpleTuition almost a decade ago, our mission of helping students throughout the lifecycle of paying for college has remained the same," said Kevin Walker, CEO, Valore. "As we come off a record year, we are focusing our efforts to seamlessly enable students, online retailers, college bookstores and wholesalers to buy and sell course material directly to each other through our marketplace, which lowers prices for everyone, and ultimately benefits the students' wallets."

Significant Growth and New Markets
Valore experienced record growth in 2014, almost tripling its revenue to over $65MM. The company achieved profitability last year and is preparing for another year of tremendous growth with revenue forecasted to exceed $100MM. Over 10 million students visited the site in 2014 to buy, rent or sell their textbooks from the 40,000 enterprise buyers and sellers that fuel the ValoreBooks marketplace. In addition, Valore recently launched ValoreBooks Liquidate, the company's first product designed specifically for college stores, a market it plans to focus on in 2015.

Strengthening the Executive Team
In 2014, the company strengthened its leadership team with a few key appointments. Geoffrey Willison was named Chief Operating Officer and Head of Finance. Geoffrey was previously COO and then President of the student marketing company Edvisors, which he helped lead to a successful exit, and was more recently COO of the payments start-up Plastiq. Geoff Greene joined Valore in September 2014 as Chief Technology Officer. Previously, Geoff was CTO at Gemvara, where he directed the development of the company's eCommerce platform, as well as its technical operations and strategic product planning. Before his time at Gemvara, Geoff was CTO at Bullhorn for over seven years. The company also expanded its Board of Directors with the addition of Faisal Masud, an independent board member and current EVP of Global E-Commerce at Staples. Faisal brings over 15 years of retail distribution and logistics experience with several Fortune 500 retailers including Amazon, Inc. and eBay.  

About Valore
Valore was founded in 2006 when the company launched its first product, SimpleTuition, a leading online student loan comparison engine that has helped more than 10 million families pay less for their education. Since then, the company has launched products including SmarterBucks, a rewards program that helps pay down any student loan and PayBackSmarter, a student loan repayment tool, making it easier for people nationwide to get debt-free faster and for less.

In 2012, to address the high cost of textbooks, SimpleTuition acquired ValoreBooks — an online marketplace that saves students up to 90% on the cost of rentals as well as new and used textbooks. The acquisition of ValoreBooks expanded the company's suite of savings-focused products to help students and their families plan for the cost of college, save on expenses while in school, and manage and pay down their student debt. In 2015, SimpleTuition, Inc. rebranded to Valore.

Valore, based in Boston, is funded by Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners and North Hill Ventures.

Learn more about the Valore suite of products for students and bookstores.

Media Contact:
Kim Pegnato
KW Communications
[email protected]
781-620-0016

SOURCE Valore

Related Links

http://www.valore.com