Former Kaplan Chief Assembling a Digital Learning Company

For 14 years, Jonathan N. Grayer helped build Kaplan from a small test preparation company into one of the giants of the education business and the crown jewel of what once was The Washington Post Company.

Now, with a pair of acquisitions, Mr. Grayer will take a big step toward expanding his latest venture into a learning hub for the digital age.

Weld North, the company Mr. Grayer now runs as chairman and chief executive, plans to announce on Monday that it has acquired two digital learning businesses that will help expand the company into English-language education and school management. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but people briefed on the matter said Weld North was paying a total of more than $150 million for the two companies, Imagine Learning and Truenorthlogic.

Private equity firms have been eager to jump into the $8 billion market for education technology, an industry that has drawn investments from the likes of Providence Equity Partners and Bain Capital. Media conglomerates like News Corporation and Bertelsmann are also pouring money into the education technology business.

The deals for Imagine Learning and Truenorthlogic are the latest by Weld North, an investment partnership backed in part by the private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Though Weld North has its hands in a number of other businesses â€" it controls the specialty food provider Organic Avenue, for example â€" it has long had designs on competing with established education companies like Kaplan. (Kaplan is now part of Graham Industries, which changed its name last year from The Washington Post Company after it sold The Washington Post newspaper.)

Even after leaving Kaplan in 2008, Mr. Grayer wanted to remain involved in the for-profit education business. But he wanted to focus on digital learning, what he considered to be the future of schooling.

“Digital products have been around for a while, but they have proven to be a mainstay,” he said in an interview. “They’re getting to the point where schools, administrators and politicians are realizing that change has to occur.”

Weld North’s first purchase was Edgenuity, a specialist in helping students who have fallen behind academically catch up with their peers. Weld North also combined two smaller companies into Generation Ready, a provider of school improvement services.

To those, Weld North is adding two companies based in Utah’s “Silicon Slopes” technology community. Imagine Learning uses animation and games to help younger students learn English as a second language, a program now known as English Language Learner. Truenorthlogic provides cloud-based human resource software for schools in districts like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, and is intended to work together with Generation Ready.

The two latest additions will help Weld North create what it calls a $200 million platform for digital learning, one that focuses both on student programs and administrative services.

Mr. Grayer acknowledges that his company’s bet on learning carries some risks, including a drop in states’ education spending and the fact that schools tend to buy products only once a year. But he contends that Weld North now has the tools to compete against bigger, older rivals.

“We now have the best assets to build a digital education company,” Mr. Grayer said. “Legacy businesses alone are not going to solve all the needs of the new marketplace.”