Navigation North

What Navigation North does

Navigation North is a Minneapolis-based educational technology and professional services firm, founded in 2005, that designs, builds, and maintains custom technology platforms for cultural institutions, government agencies, and K-12 school districts. Its core work centers on making educational and cultural resources more accessible through open-source-based solutions, including open-source Canvas LMS deployments, custom WordPress themes and plugins for open educational resources (OER), and large-scale digital collections platforms. The firm's flagship productized offering, Museable, is a modern extensible platform for publishing and sharing digital collections, and the firm also built and continues to support the Smithsonian Learning Lab — an open-access platform providing access to over 6 million digital objects and serving 100,000+ users.

The company generates revenue through project-based professional services engagements spanning initial research, participatory design, development, and ongoing maintenance and platform upgrades, with pricing determined via direct consultation rather than published rates. Its customer base is concentrated among marquee institutional and government clients, including the Smithsonian Institution, US Department of Education (partner since 2013), Albuquerque Public Schools (Canvas LMS deployment serving 100K+ constituents with a 90% reduction in maintenance costs), and the California Historical Society (Teaching California OER hub). Ancillary partners include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, California Department of Education, SRI International, and others, and the firm has earned industry recognition including a 2019 Webby Award, 2017 Gold Muse Award, and 2016 Best EdTech designation. The company is privately held with no disclosed funding rounds, parent company, or institutional investors in the available data, operating with a headcount in the 11-50 range.

Name

Navigation North

Legal name

Navigation North

Website

https://navigationnorth.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Technology Services

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

K–12 Instructional Design & Curriculum Development Services (EDAGAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Accessibility & Inclusive OER (UDL, alt formats) (EDAGAJAJ), Accessibility & Inclusive Design Tooling for Authoring (WCAG/508) (EDAFAHAL), Special Education & Accessibility-Optimized Media (UDL, AAC, Captioning) (EDAGALAH)

Keywords

• Educational technology services
• Learning management systems
• Open-source edtech
• Digital collections platforms
• Custom web development

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Professional Services and Technology Development: Navigation North generates revenue through project-based professional services engagements with educational institutions and cultural organizations. Their work includes initial research, design, and development, as well as ongoing maintenance, support, and platform upgrades.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Navigation North designs, develops, and supports custom educational technology solutions for cultural institutions, K-12 school districts, and federal/state education agencies. Its offering spans the proprietary Museable learning/collections platform, open-source Canvas LMS deployment and customization, WordPress web development for educational publishers, and open educational resources (OER) plugin development with WCAG/Section 508 accessibility compliance.

Product overview

Navigation North operates as a technology and educational services company offering both proprietary platforms and professional services. The product portfolio centers on Museable, a modern digital collections platform, alongside the Smithsonian Learning Lab (a platform they built and continue to support providing access to millions of cultural objects). Their service offerings include Canvas LMS deployment for K-12 districts, WordPress web development services (themes, plugins, blocks, microsites), and open-source OER plugins. These offerings are designed to increase access to and understanding of educational and cultural resources through collaborative technology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Museable: A modern, extensible platform to share and publish digital collections and bring cultural resources to life online.

Products and services

• Museable Proprietary software platform built by Navigation North for creating and delivering interactive digital courses and collections, used by cultural institutions and education organizations to publish accessible learning content online.
• Canvas LMS Deployment Services End-to-end deployment, customization, integration, and support of the open-source Canvas LMS for K-12 school districts and education agencies seeking an alternative to commercial learning management platforms.
• WordPress Web Development for Education Custom WordPress-based website design and development, including open educational resources (OER) plugins, for educational publishers, cultural institutions, and schools that need accessible content publishing on an open-source CMS.

Quantifiable outcome

• 90% reduction in system maintenance costs for Albuquerque Public Schools
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 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

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• California Historical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Partnership to develop Teaching California, a dynamic hub for open educational resources. Navigation North adapted their open-source OER and curriculum WordPress plugins to meet CHS requirements. The site, launched in 2019, provides instructional content connected to California's History-Social Science Framework.
• Albuquerque Public SchoolscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017Partnership to deploy open-source Canvas LMS for New Mexico's largest school district. Navigation North provided needs assessment, environmental scans, modeling, prototyping, building, testing, and migration services. The solution serves 100K+ constituents and achieved 90% reduction in system maintenance costs.
• Smithsonian InstitutioncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Navigation North led the initial research, design, and development of the Smithsonian Learning Lab, which launched in 2015. The partnership continues with ongoing platform support, performance and security updates, and collaboration on new features. The lab provides access to 6 million+ digital objects from across the Smithsonian's nine museums, nine research centers, and National Zoo.
• US Department of EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Navigation North serves as the primary line of support and partnership with the Office of Educational Technology and Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Work includes site and plugin development, improved usability and accessibility, and ongoing maintenance across multiple web properties. Partnership began in 2013.
• Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner organization, though specific partnership details are not detailed in the available source material.
• California Department of EducationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner organization, though specific partnership details are not detailed in the available source material.
• SRI InternationalminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner organization, though specific partnership details are not detailed in the available source material.
• American Institutes for ResearchminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner organization, though specific partnership details are not detailed in the available source material.
• Smarter BalancedminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner organization, though specific partnership details are not detailed in the available source material.
• Council of Chief State School OfficersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner organization, though specific partnership details are not detailed in the available source material.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Blackbaud: Major provider of software and services for nonprofits, educational institutions, and cultural organizations. Comparable to Navigation North as a broad incumbent serving museums and educational organizations with overlapping CRM, website, and content capabilities.
• PowerSchool: Large K-12 EdTech platform offering unified classroom, SIS, and assessment solutions, including the former Schoology LMS. Comparable to Navigation North as a broad incumbent competing for K-12 technology budgets and procurement cycles.
• D2L (Desire2Learn): Provider of the Brightspace LMS, a major competitor in K-12 and higher education learning management. Comparable to Navigation North as an alternative institutional LMS path and a competitor for the same district and education-agency contracts.

Direct peers

• Axiell: Provider of collections management and digital preservation software for museums, libraries, and archives. Comparable to Navigation North's Museable platform as a direct competitor in the cultural heritage technology space.
• Gallery Systems: Maker of The Museum System (TMS), a leading collections management software for museums and cultural institutions. Directly comparable to Navigation North's Museable platform and Smithsonian Learning Lab work as a cultural-sector collections technology provider.
• Instructure: The owner and primary developer of Canvas LMS — the open-source learning management platform that Navigation North deploys, customizes, and supports for institutional clients. Directly comparable as the platform partner and ecosystem leader in which Navigation North's K-12 and cultural-sector work is anchored.

Others

• SRI International: Nonprofit research institute listed as a Navigation North partner, with comparable involvement in EdTech research, federal education initiatives, and program evaluation. Relevant as a partner and ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor.

Emerging players

• Omeka (Corporation for Digital Scholarship): Open-source web publishing platform for digital collections, widely used by museums, libraries, and cultural heritage projects. Comparable to Navigation North's Museable and open-source ethos as an alternative digital collections technology for cultural institutions.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NavNorth
• Facebookfacebook.com/navnorth
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/navigation-north-learning-solutions

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 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 Navigation North