CELCAT

What CELCAT does

CELCAT (legally Corbett Engineering Limited, incorporated in England and Wales) is a UK-based vertical-market software company that provides timetabling and resource scheduling solutions to universities, further education colleges, vocational training providers, and specialist institutions including performing arts conservatoires and film schools. Founded over 30 years ago and headquartered in Coleshill, Birmingham, the company serves more than 200 education institutions globally, and its platform supports scheduling for over one million students daily across the UK, France, Australasia, Southeast Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. Distribution combines direct enterprise sales with a long-standing channel partner network, notably CDS (Australasia) since 1997 and Adapt IT (a Volaris sister company) for Sub-Saharan Africa. The company is privately held and operates as a portfolio company within Volaris Group, a Constellation Software subsidiary.

The company's core offering is Celcat AI, an AI-native, cloud-based timetabling platform built on a proprietary graph database that processes relational dependencies between rooms, staff, cohorts, modules, students, and constraints in real time. The platform was rolled out with a "Five Superpowers" series between February and June 2025 (Strategy-Resilient Timetabling, Cohort of Timetabling Agents, X-Ray Vision, Future-Lens, and Timetabling at Warp Speed) and reached general availability as the primary go-forward product in 2026. The legacy Celcat Timetabler Windows client remains supported alongside a modular extension layer covering Attendance Monitoring (RFID/UKVI-compliant), Exam Scheduling, Automated Premium, the student-facing Celcat Now portal, Staff Pay Claim, and a Data Collection Tool. Integration is managed through the Celcat Systems Integration Manager (SIM), connecting to mainstream Student Information Systems (Tribal SITS, OASIS/Tribal eVision), HR/payroll platforms (UNIT4 Agresso, MidlandHR iTrent), Moodle, Microsoft 365/Exchange, Active Directory, RFID hardware, and digital signage (Omnivex). Security posture is reinforced by ISO 27001 certification (renewed 2026) and UK Cyber Essentials certification.

CELCAT generates revenue primarily through recurring subscription licensing priced on a cost-per-student or cost-per-user basis, typically on annual or multi-year contracts with tiered pricing by institution size. This recurring base is supplemented by one-time implementation, configuration, and data migration services, plus separately sold or bundled support and maintenance contracts. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. Revenue concentration is diversified across 200+ enterprise customers spanning higher education, further education, apprenticeship providers, and specialist institutions (e.g., University of the Arts London, Keele University, Northeastern University, University of Johannesburg, Walsall College, MetFilm School, Trinity Laban Conservatoire). Headcount is small (11-50), consistent with efficient-scale niche vertical SaaS economics, and the company has not raised external funding rounds, relying instead on Volaris Group's permanent-capital backing for growth investment.

Name

CELCAT

Legal name

Corbett Engineering Limited

Website

https://celcat.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CELCAT (Corbett Engineering Limited) provides AI-native timetabling and resource scheduling software to 200+ universities, further education colleges, and vocational institutions worldwide, serving over one million students daily across the UK, Europe, Australasia, Africa, North America, and South America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Timetabling Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Attendance, Scheduling, Timetabling & Calendar Management (EDAFAEAF)

Keywords

• Timetabling software
• Academic scheduling software
• Education resource management
• Class scheduling platform
• Institutional scheduling solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Coventry

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription Licensing: Recurring subscription model based on cost-per-student or cost-per-user pricing. Annual or multi-year contracts with tiered pricing based on institution size.
2. Initial Implementation Services: One-time implementation and configuration services for initial deployment, data migration, and system setup.
3. Support and Maintenance: Ongoing technical support and software maintenance bundled with subscription or sold as separate annual contracts.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

CELCAT develops and sells AI-native timetabling software for universities, colleges, and training organisations worldwide. Its platform, anchored by Celcat AI and the Celcat Timetabler Windows client, automates the creation of clash-free schedules for classes, rooms, exams, and staff, and includes optional extensions for attendance monitoring, exam scheduling, automated resource allocation, student self-service, and staff pay claim processing. The solution is delivered as a cloud-based SaaS service and integrates with student information systems, HR/payroll, learning management systems, and digital signage.

Product overview

CELCAT offers a unified timetabling platform centred on Celcat AI and the Celcat Timetabler Windows client, delivered as a modern SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) product. The core platform includes standard features for Interactive Timetabling, Publishing, Reporting, and Room Booking. An optional extensions layer (add-on modules) extends the platform's value with Attendance Monitoring, Exam Scheduling, Automated Premium, Now (student portal), and Staff Pay Claim. Supporting tools include the Systems Integration Manager (SIM) for data imports, Web Publisher and Calendar for timetable display, iCalendar Feed for external calendar synchronisation, Notification Service for automated alerts, Multi-Week View Report for detailed scheduling views, and the Data Collection Tool for standardised data gathering. All components are designed for universities and colleges, with particular strength in multi-campus, multi-timezone institutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Celcat AI Next-generation AI-native timetabling platform built from the ground up for modern education. Cloud-based and intelligent, it empowers teams to create accurate, clash-free schedules faster and integrates with existing systems, scaling as institutions grow. Targeted at universities and colleges.
• Celcat Timetabler The core Windows client application for managing all aspects of academic timetabling. Provides interactive timetabling, room booking, attendance monitoring, and reporting capabilities. Supports multi-user environments with highly configurable role-based access controls. Used by universities, colleges, and training organisations.
• Celcat Attendance Monitoring Extension that verifies student and tutor attendance in-person and online. Supports RFID cards, QR codes, mobile check-ins, and Bluetooth beacons. Fully integrated with live timetables and includes compliance reporting for UKVI regulations. For universities and colleges needing attendance tracking.
• Celcat Exam Scheduling Extension producing optimised exam schedules for students and invigilators in minutes. Automates scheduling for organisational to individual constraints, including venue allocation and constraint management. For higher and further education institutions.
• Celcat Automated Premium Extension enabling automated scheduling where the software produces timetables automatically based on rules and resources, for both courses and exams, with demonstrable impartiality. Processes all requests simultaneously for fairer resource distribution. For institutions wanting hands-off timetable generation.
• Celcat Now Student-facing extension giving students the ability to view timetables, book rooms, and self-check-in. Frees up management time while enhancing student experience. Targeted at universities and colleges deploying student self-service.
• Celcat Staff Pay Claim Extension automating tutor pay for fast, accurate payments and compliance. Records, verifies, and fulfils academic staff pay claims in a unified process integrated with the timetabling system. Enables staff-initiated claim submissions and custom approval workflows. Targeted at further education and training providers.
• Celcat Web Publisher Windows-based configuration tool and service that auto-publishes web-ready timetables in HTML and PDF formats. Supports searchable indexes and gradual release of timetable information to students based on enrollment status.
• Celcat Calendar Web application displaying timetables in calendar form for staff and students, providing a familiar interface for viewing individual schedules.
• Celcat iCalendar Feed Windows-based service serving internet calendar feeds (iCalendar format) to staff and students, enabling them to subscribe to personal timetable events via any compatible calendar application (Google, Outlook, Apple Calendar).
• Celcat Multi-Week View Report Windows-based application producing timetables showing weekly breakdown for a term, helping users identify differences in repeating events that combined week timetables might obscure.
• Celcat Notification Service Windows-based automated service that dynamically triggers email and/or SMS messages to staff and students affected by changed events such as room changes. Complemented by opt-in functionality for students.
• Celcat Systems Integration Manager (SIM) Windows-based configuration tool and service managing integration to external systems including student records, HR, payroll, and financial systems. Schedules frequent automated imports of data into the Celcat database, operating 24/7 to keep timetabling data current.
• Celcat Data Collection Tool Excel-based tool combining Excel flexibility with Celcat standards. Features locked columns, pre-filled data, automated room allocation based on course numbers, validation of time fields, and automated import via staging tables. Reduces annual timetable production timeline by approximately half. For institutions needing streamlined data collection workflows.

Named customers12 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration15 records

AI capability7 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• CDS (Australasia) Pty LtdcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 1997Long-standing regional partner since 1997 covering Australia, Southeast Asia, and Pacific regions. CDS provides local sales, implementation, and support services for CELCAT products in the region.
• Adapt ITminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSister company within Volaris Group based in Durban, South Africa. Provides regional coverage and support services for African education market.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Coursedog: Coursedog offers academic scheduling, curriculum management, and course catalog software for higher education institutions, directly competing with CELCAT in timetabling and resource scheduling for universities and colleges.
• Ad Astra Information Systems (Watermark): Ad Astra, now part of Watermark, provides class scheduling, space utilization, and demand forecasting for higher education, directly overlapping CELCAT's timetabling, room booking, and predictive analytics offerings.
• CollegeNET (25Live): CollegeNET's 25Live platform handles course scheduling, event scheduling, and room booking for universities, making it a direct functional competitor to CELCAT's room booking and timetabling products.
• Tribal Group (Syllabus Plus): Tribal Group's Syllabus Plus is a long-standing timetabling solution used widely in UK and international higher education, directly competing with CELCAT's core timetabling proposition in the same institutional buyer base.
• EMS Software (Accruent): EMS Software by Accruent provides enterprise room and event scheduling used by universities for space management and resource booking, directly overlapping CELCAT's room booking and publishing functionality.
• Astra Schedule (Explorance / ExamSoft): Astra Schedule specializes in academic and exam scheduling for higher education institutions, competing directly with CELCAT's Exam Scheduling extension and broader timetabling offering.

Broad incumbents

• Ellucian: Ellucian is a major SIS provider (Banner, Colleague, PowerCampus) increasingly embedding scheduling capabilities, representing a bundled incumbent threat to CELCAT in higher education institutions.
• Workday Student: Workday Student is a cloud-native SIS that includes academic scheduling and planning functionality, positioning it as a broad incumbent that competes with CELCAT in larger university digital transformation deals.

Regional players

• Booking Experts (RoomKey): RoomKey provides room booking and scheduling for the North American education market, overlapping CELCAT's room booking capability but with a primarily regional, North American focus.

Emerging players

• Resource Central (Add-On Products): Resource Central provides resource and room booking integrated with Microsoft 365 for education and enterprise customers, representing an emerging adjacent competitor in the calendar-integrated scheduling space.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/Celcat
• Xx.com/celcat
• YouTubeyoutube.com/Celcat
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/celcat

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CELCAT