Two University of Birmingham graduates who built an AI study tool while completing their computer science degrees have sold StudyStash to UK digital learning company Kortext, following an expansion that has taken the platform into more than 160 institutions.
Ben Ward, 23, and Jonathan Graham, 24, will remain CEO and CTO respectively, with StudyStash continuing as a distinct brand inside Kortext. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
The founders are also relocating to Silicon Valley as they target further US growth. StudyStash says around half of its customers are already based in the US, while the acquisition gives the company access to Kortext’s network of more than 1,000 universities.
It is a rapid progression for a product that began while Ward and Graham were students at the University of Birmingham, where they met while studying computer science and completing PwC’s technology degree apprenticeship.
They initially built the technology to manage their own course material before developing it into a business through the university’s Elevate incubator. The University of Birmingham became its first customer.
StudyStash now says tens of thousands of students use the platform across more than 160 institutions in the UK, Europe, US and Africa.
From student side project to international university platform
StudyStash turns existing course content into personalized study materials including flashcards, practice tests and podcasts, with the platform adapting material as students learn.
It integrates with learning management systems including Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle and provides institutions with data on how students are engaging with course content.
Current customers and partners named by the company include California State University, Minnesota State, Colorado State University and Finland’s University of Oulu.
StudyStash also has a partnership with California’s community college system, which serves 2.2 million students, and works with US higher education consultancy EAB.
At RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, the company says its technology has supported the training of 1,000 surgeons across 15 African countries.
The company has also supplied an eye-catching retention figure. StudyStash says that at one university in Washington state, the dropout rate among students using the platform fell to zero, compared with 16% among non-users. The institution is not identified in the announcement, and no further methodology or study details are supplied.
Ward describes the original decision to turn the student project into a company as a response to early demand: “We had so much traction that it was an easy decision to turn this into our first venture, and StudyStash was born.”
Since then, he adds, the company has “raised equity finance, scaled to 160+ institutions on three continents, broken into the US market and now been acquired by one of the largest e-learning providers in the field.”
Kortext adds StudyStash to its AI learning portfolio
Founded in 2013, Kortext provides digital learning content, analytics and AI-powered workflow products to universities.
The acquisition adds StudyStash’s adaptive study technology to that portfolio while leaving its existing leadership in place.
For Graham, the combination is intended to give the company more room to scale without changing its focus on institutional requirements.
“Universities set a high bar, and we built StudyStash to meet it from day one,” he says. “With Kortext, we can be even more ambitious.”
Kortext founder and CEO James Gray positions the acquisition around the company’s wider AI strategy, saying StudyStash “brings powerful capabilities that complement our existing strengths and accelerate our AI strategy.”
Ward and Graham had both already built businesses before StudyStash, through Silicon Square and Nucleus Consulting respectively, while completing their degrees and working at PwC.
Their university connection remained central to StudyStash’s early development. Both graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2025 with first-class computer science degrees, after building the business alongside their studies.
Silicon Valley becomes the next base
The next stage will take the founders from the UK to California.
Ward and Graham are relocating to Silicon Valley while retaining their CEO and CTO roles, with Kortext’s university network providing a broader route into institutions internationally.
StudyStash says 50% of its customers are already in the US, making North America an established part of the business rather than an entirely new market.
The company will continue operating under the StudyStash brand following the acquisition, with Ward and Graham remaining responsible for its leadership and development.
