Hi there @RedSkyRoad
This was announced on Sonic Academy socials in June actually
S.A partnership with S.D to offer ANA 2 as part of their plugins and the All Access Pass bundle.

As for software development, ANA 2 is developed by Sonic Academy, the Slate version is slightly different since it needed to be ported to iLOK authorization method, and also that they have made some additional Slate ANA 2 Presets that get installed by default with this version, that's all I know about it.
Maybe @phil_johnston could provide more information on this.