Adayana has acquired downtown-based Gradepoint and plans to consolidate its operations there.
The Indianapolis-based firm already has an office of about 10 people in Metro Detroit. Bringing those people downtown to Gradepoint’s headquarters will up the number to about 50 people. Adayana also hopes to hire a few more people for its Detroit location later this year.
"We're a growth corporation," says Thomas Gahm, director of communications for Adayana. "We're planning on growing all of our locations."
Gradepoint got its start in 1999 in Detroit providing on-site Instructor Led Training for the automotive industry. It now develops enterprise-learning programs for companies with the goal of increasing employee productivity and revenues.
It has worked with Adayana before on several projects in the past. Adayana decided to acquire Gradepoint because of its wealth of experience and intellectual property in the health-care industry.
Adayana was founded in 2001 and has grown to about 400 employees today. Most of that growth has been through acquisitions of firms like Gradepoint.
Although larger corporations gobbling up littler ones is often seen as a bad thing, it’s a positive sign for Detroit’s budding new economy. It takes not only smart people and investment to develop this this type of entrepreneurial environment, but larger corporations to buy them up so the process can repeat itself. This phenomenon happens time and time again in places like Silicon Valley and Research Triangle Park.
Source: Thomas Gahm, director of communications for Adayana
Writer: Jon Zemke
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