Two graduates of a Birmingham University degree apprenticeship have sold StudyStash, the AI study tool they built as students, to the UK education software provider Kortext in a deal understood to value the business at a low eight-figure sum in dollars.
Ben Ward, 23, and Jonathan Graham, 24, agreed the takeover last month, 13 months after graduating. The terms were not released.
The pair developed the tool during their computer science and technology degree apprenticeship to help them manage their own studies. The apprenticeship was sponsored by the accountancy firm PwC, where they spent an industry placement year, and they went full time on the business after graduating in July 2025.
In 12 months StudyStash went from one customer, Birmingham University, to 160 higher education institutions around the world. UK adopters included St Mary’s University, Twickenham, Loughborough University and City St George’s, before the software was picked up overseas.
Ward said universities adopted the product quickly because the pair were among the first to use learning assistant chatbots to address the challenges students face, while giving universities more accurate tracking of learning.
“We were first to market and we have had some partners that have really propelled us,” he said.
StudyStash partnered with the US education consultancy EAB to help it sell around the world, and supports students in 121 languages.
Graham said: “It’s a bit of a land grab now but when we first started universities were very hesitant to adopt AI, especially faculty. That has come around … and the rate of change now is so massive.”
StudyStash uses course material to build personalised flashcards, practice tests, podcasts and other ways for students to learn from the material universities give them. Its algorithms are designed to work out how each student learns and where the gaps in their knowledge are.
“It zeroes in on concepts that you are struggling with,” Graham said. “Over time we will understand the areas you need to work on and we will question your understanding so you are not just memorising the content but are getting to grips with it.”
The service reports to university faculty on students’ progress, so that academics can tailor their classes. Graham said the company was able to show universities evidence of lower drop-out rates and grade improvements in trials, which helped them to justify the investment.
To sell to universities, the founders had to show the platform was secure. They applied for and were granted the international information security standard ISO 27001 in six weeks. StudyStash manages the large language models it integrates with through Microsoft Azure.
Ward and Graham met in the first week of their undergraduate degree in 2021, when they lived close to each other in the university’s Vale Village. At the end of their second year they persuaded Birmingham University to accept them on to its start-up accelerator, a scheme normally reserved for graduates.
Eight angel investors, including three San Francisco-based Birmingham University alumni, invested an undisclosed sum last summer through an agreement that gave them the right to equity at a future fundraising or sale. The company has a team of 10.
Ward said the offer was compelling because Kortext could sell StudyStash into its existing customer base. Figures from the data platform Tracxn show UK tech acquisitions fell 20 per cent to 167 in the first half of 2026.
“We have a killer product but we don’t have the distribution,” Ward said. “Finding someone like Kortext with a 1,000-plus universities was a no-brainer.”
He added: “For us personally to have an exit under our belt at 23, 24 years old and have very happy investors made sense. We have lots and lots of other businesses in us.”
Ward remains chief executive of StudyStash and Graham its chief technology officer. Last month the pair moved to San Francisco.
