Tes has acquired a company that is the leading provider of school timetabling software, as part of its investment into digital services for schools and teachers.

Tes Global has bought Edval to expand its portfolio of software-enabled services to provide to schools, and to build on the company’s credentials as a hub of edtech innovation.

Related: ‘Embracing edtech in the classroom is essential’

Opinion: What does the edtech strategy mean for schools?

Timetabling: Five myths about how school timetables are created

Edval, founded by the brothers Tim and Chris Cooper, creates software to simplify school timetabling and make the process less time-consuming.

The timetabling features are designed to avoid schools needing to depend on an individual staff member as a “timetabling guru”. The idea for the business developed from Tim Cooper’s PhD research into secondary school schedules in 1993. It was fully established as a company in Australia in 1998.

Edtech innovation

Rob Grimshaw, chief executive of Tes Global, said: “We’re delighted that Edval will be joining the Tes family. We know that schools find timetabling incredibly frustrating. With the software solutions Edval offer, we will be able to help more schools with these challenges.

“Thousands of teachers and pupils have benefited from Edval’s unique approach to timetabling. We are excited about the opportunity to make these benefits available to the 25,000 schools Tes works with worldwide.

“The acquisition of Edval is an important addition to our portfolio. It’s the next step of our transformation into an international provider of software-enabled services to schools and teachers.”

In a joint statement, Tim and Chris Cooper, along with Edval’s managing director, Michael Emmanuel, said: “We have been passionate about helping schools and teachers timetable effectively for over 20 years.

“So it is an amazing opportunity to bring this knowledge and expertise to more people across the world through Tes’ ownership, which is well-aligned with our vision - that every school on earth will use Edval technology to timetable their school.

“Our success in building Edval could not have been achieved without our brilliant team. We would like to thank them all for getting us to where we are today and we look forward to working with them all as we take on this next exciting chapter of our journey.”