Plagiarism Detection Service VeriCite Gains Key Investor In Ray Henderson

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- VeriCite, Inc. today announced that ed-tech industry veteran Ray Henderson has invested in the firm and joined its board of directors. 

Earlier in his career Henderson helped conceive and launch several of the most recognized product categories in the industry, including companion websites for textbooks (Pearson Inc., PSO) and learning management systems (eCollege, ANGEL Learning, Blackboard). He worked to establish open industry standards for content and technology interoperability through IMS Global. Today through his advisory boutique Lessons Learned Ventures, LLC, he is helping launch and develop promising ed-tech firms including Lumen Learning, Inc.; HelioCampus, Inc.; Metametrics, Inc.; and VeriCite, Inc.

"The plagiarism detection market was created in the 90's, but has undergone only modest innovation around client needs," said Henderson. "VeriCite is disrupting the market with a modern cloud infrastructure that delivers extreme speed and scale, a deep focus on ease of use, a reliance on open standards, and a commitment to affordable education." 

The founders' unique story was what first attracted Henderson.

"Scott Siddall and Sam Ottenhoff built the leading Sakai hosting company. They proved a business model that evolved around technology reliability, openness, affordability, and great service," said Henderson. "This experienced team then incubated and refined their product in a great crucible with very demanding users. This explains the impressive strength of their launch; they've added institutional clients faster than any other company I know in the last two years."

Henderson applauded the recent addition of industry veteran Valerie Schreiner as CEO (former key executive at Schoolzilla, Elluminate, and Blackboard).

"Valerie made a deep impression on me as having the right blend of customer advocacy, a vision for technology in education, and a commitment to an open and collaborative style of doing business that works in education," said Henderson. "She's proven she understands educator values that drive growth, and that she can scale a business while remaining tightly aligned to the community of practice around it."

A key differentiator for VeriCite is its open and straightforward business conduct.

"We've made the process of obtaining a plagiarism detection product very consumer friendly," said Schreiner. "In minutes a visitor to VeriCite.com can view our pricing, sign up for a free trial, and obtain what's needed to do a live trial to compare quality of service against their existing service exactly as it would appear on go-live. This removes a lot of wasted time and guesswork that our clients experience with other vendors." 

As part of the new arrangement, VeriCite has relocated its headquarters to the Indianapolis area.

"We had several employees in the area already and Indiana has a number of incentives designed to help tech firms scale their businesses that we've been able to take advantage of," said Schreiner. "There's a thriving ed-tech scene in Indy, and this choice aligns well with our values as a company."

About VeriCite, Inc.
VeriCite's cloud-based tool for assessing originality aims to provide an easier way for educators to turn conversations about academic integrity into positive teaching moments. Backed by technological expertise and unrivaled responsive service, VeriCite is easy to use, easy to integrate with all mainstream learning management systems, and easy on the budget. For more information, visit www.vericite.com.

SOURCE VeriCite