National Association of College Stores invests in RedShelf Digital Platform

In an effort to ensure the stability and continued development of a digital course materials platform that’s simple and cost-effective for any campus store, their students, and faculty, the National Association of College Stores (NACS) has invested $1 million to acquire a minority share in RedShelf, a Chicago-based e-textbook company.

For a number of years, NACS has strongly encouraged campus stores to offer digital course materials. The association decided to invest in RedShelf to help support that position.

“What we saw was a company that shares our commitment to the independent college store,” says Ed Schlichenmayer, deputy CEO of NACS and COO of NACS subsidiary indiCo. “It’s a very store-friendly model, with no upfront costs for the store.” In lieu of a setup fee, RedShelf has a revenue-sharing arrangement with its clients, which enables any size or type of store to get started in digital materials with minimal financial outlay.

Because RedShelf’s technology can be accessed from any device with a web browser, students can access their materials at any time from almost any place without downloading a special app. The company reformats course materials into HTML5, compatible with all browsers, and stores the content in the cloud.

RedShelf worked with indiCo to learn more about the college store industry and tweak its solution in response to feedback from stores. The company already has 160 stores using its platform and anticipates that number will grow to at least 350 stores by the end of 2015.

The platform also has authoring tools for faculty to create custom materials or digitize a book they’ve written. Analytical tools enable campus stores and publishers to track how students use their digital materials. RedShelf also has agreements with two major textbook publishers to sell electronically distributed access codes via the platform, with five more big publishers in the works.

The strategic investment will allow NACS to support the ongoing progress and viability of the RedShelf platform with an eye toward helping keep stores current with digital technologies. In addition, Schlichenmayer will hold a seat on RedShelf’s board of directors. Through indiCo, NACS will also continue to partner with other digital course materials providers that it has been working with for many years.

With the NACS investment, RedShelf has now raised $2 million in Series A funding to launch new features and products, improve upon the existing platform, and support new relationships with both publishers and educational institutions.