About Edsby
Keeping students at the center of everything for 35+ years.
We believe students, educators and parents in K-12 have needs that traditional education software was never built to meet. Edsby is on a mission to improve K-12 teaching and learning around the world, with next generation social technologies and industry-leading student data stewardship.
The S in Edsby
Look at the name. Right in the middle, there's an s.
Edsby. Five letters, and at the very center of them, sits an s. It stands for students.
It's where students have been since the beginning: not at the edge of the product, not an item on a later roadmap, but at the center of every decision we make.
For more than 35 years we have built for the child at the desk, the teacher beside them, and the family waiting at home. The technology has changed many times over. The question we ask has not: does this put students first?
Students are why we do what we do.
Our story
Thirty-five years, one commitment.
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1980s
Partnership forged
Brothers Steve Asbury, Jon Asbury and colleague Scott Welch develop, among other things, Northern Telecom’s bestselling voicemail system Meridian Mail under supervision of John Myers.
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1990
World’s first LMS
Leaving Nortel and forming SoftArc, the Asburys and Welch develop FirstClass, a communication and collaboration system used by millions worldwide and credited as the first Learning Management System (LMS).
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1999
Public listing, acquisition
Former Nortel supervisor John Myers joins as CEO. SoftArc is renamed Centrinity and lists on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is acquired by OpenText in 2002.
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2010
Edsby is born
The Asburys, Welch and Myers form a new company and design what becomes Edsby, building on what they learned from the K-12 success of FirstClass worldwide.
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2026
Today
Strong, and still student-first
Still growing, still improving, and still asking the same question we asked on day one.
All systems student-first
Certifications and standards
Handling student data responsibly and demonstrably.
Verified by leading standards bodies.
- ISO 27001 Certified for information security management.
- A4L Student Data Privacy Consortium Signatory of the U.S. National Data Protection Agreement.
- Common Sense Media Evaluated by its Privacy Program.
- ST4S Assessed by Australia’s Safer Technologies 4 Schools initiative.
- 1EdTech Consortium A member in good standing, formerly IMS Global.
- Project Unicorn Certified for interoperability, the highest level.
- CASA Tier 2 Certified for app security by the App Defense Alliance.
How can we help you?
Talk with our team about your school, district or region.