Cherry Tree & Associates | July 2022 | Volume XVI, Issue 1 |
|
Renaissance Acquires KeyPhonics
Renaissance, a major assessment, and analytics provider has acquired KeyPhonics, a web-based phonics assessment for grades 1-6, to expand the Company’s early literacy assessment offerings. The acquisition is anticipated to add critical phonics data to the insights Renaissance offers teachers about students’ reading proficiency. This acquisition is Renaissance’s third since March 2021.
marketbrief.edweek.org
|
Alpine Investors Acquires FEV Tutor
Alpine Investors, a California-based private equity firm, has acquired FEV Tutor, a K-12 research and evidence-based online tutoring platform. Alpine’s partnerships are expected to help further FEV Tutor’s mission to develop online learning solutions that positively impact learning outcomes for all students. As part of the transaction, Jim Tormey of Alpine will be the new chief executive officer at FEV Tutor, with co-founders Anirudh Baheti and Ryan Patenaude continuing in leadership roles.
privateequitywire.co.uk
|
Learning Care Groups Acquires AppleTree & Gilden Woods
Learning Care Group, Inc., a for-profit early education and childcare provider in North America, acquired AppleTree & Gilden Woods. AppleTree & Gilden Woods consists of 24 preschools serving Michigan families in the Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Detroit markets, and one preschool for families in Apex, North Carolina. The acquisition bolsters Learning Care Groups portfolio, which now includes over 1,050 school locations.
finance.yahoo.com
|
BARBRI Global Acquires Strafford
BARBRI Global, a global legal education provider, has acquired Strafford, a provider of online courses focused on legal, accounting, and other professionals on practice specific topics. "By bringing Strafford into the BARBRI Global legal education ecosystem, we continue to fulfill our vison to be the education partner for our clients at every step of their legal journey - from backpack to briefcase," said Stephen Fredette, CEO of BARBRI Global.
prnewswire.com
|
Sycamore Partners Acquired Goddard Systems
Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm specializing in retail, consumer, and distribution-related investments, acquired Goddard Systems, the franchisor of The Goddard School, an early childhood education provider. Sycamore Partners Managing Director, Sefan Kaluzny, said that the firm looks forward to partnering with management to further Goddard’s important mission of caring for and educating children. Currently, Goddard Systems reports having more than 550 franchised schools in 37 states serving more than 70,000 students.
prnewswire.com
|
Meazure Learning Acquired Scantron’s Certification and Licensure Business
Meazure, a provider of high-stakes online testing services for the higher education and professional testing markets, acquired Scantron’s Certification and Licensure Business. Included in the acquisition are Scantron’s test center network, related assessment software, exam development, psychometric, and client services and solutions expert teams which are expected to enable Meazure to offer traditional in-person testing. This acquisition also expands the Company’s global scale and its exam development and psychometric services.
prnewswire.com
|
Riverside Invests in Drone Curriculum
The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm, has added DroneCurriculum.net to its iCEV platform. DroneCurriculum.net develops drone-related content, curriculum and instructional materials for the K-12 market. Riverside’s platform company, iCEV, is a developer of SaaS-based digital curriculum, instructional materials and industry certifications for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) market. “This acquisition will allow iCEV to further expand its curriculum offering and will reinforce its commitment to STEM,” said Riverside Partner Drew Flanigan.
riversidecompany.com
|
Greats Minds PBC Raised $150 Million
Great Minds PBC, a public benefit company and subsidiary of the nonprofit Great Minds, which enlists teachers and academics to write curriculum, raised $150 million in funding. A-Street, an investment fund that focuses on companies looking to transform K-12 education, funded the capital raise and will be a minority stockholder. The deal is expected to support Great Minds grow its top-rated public benefit company which works to develop K-12 curriculum.
prnewswire.com
|
ACTO Secured $18 Million in Financing to Accelerate Growth
ACTO, the omnichannel learning and enablement platform for life sciences, closed an $18 million equity financing bringing ACTO’s total invested capital to over $30 million. Questa Capital, a healthcare venture growth equity firm that actively invests in healthcare and life sciences software, led the investment. ACTO will use the proceeds of the investment to accelerate growth and explore potential business and partnership opportunities.
globenewswire.com
|
|
Carnegie Acquires Maguire Associates
Carnegie Dartlet, a higher education marketing and enrollment strategy company, acquired Maguire Associates, an enrollment management firm. The transaction follows a string of strategic acquisitions for Carnegie. The addition of Maguire is expected to bolster Carnegie’s psychometrics and research team by adding data science, individualized financial aid modeling capabilities, and even more market research expertise.
prweb.com
|
MidOcean Partners Acquires Pragmatic Institute
MidOcean Partners has acquired Pragmatic Institute from Renovus Capital Partners and Petra Capital Partners. Pragmatic Institute is a product management training company that has trained over 200,000 professionals in over 40 countries. MidOcean Partners plans to continue the Company’s aggressive growth plan by supporting organic initiatives and strategic acquisitions.
renovuscapital.com
|
Genius Group Acquires California-Based University of Antelope Valley
The Singapore-based Genius Group Limited (NYSE American:GNS), a global ed-tech and education group, acquired California-based University of Antelope Valley. The acquisition was one of four acquisitions that were consummated following Genius Group’s IPO on the NYSE American. Genius Group plans to grow the university campus and build a digital twin of the University of Antelope Valley in the metaverse to deliver an immersive tertiary education option globally. The Group reports having over 2.9 million students, of all ages, in 200 countries.
businesswire.com
|
ALG to Acquire Holberton
The African Leadership Group (ALG) has entered into an agreement to acquire Holberton, a coding school. The Company’s technology platform will become part of ALG’s online learning platform, and the existing 34 physical locations will be spun out as a stand-alone business under Holberton COO Florian Bucher. ALG expects the acquisition to aid in its yearly ambition to provide 200,000 students with technological education.
techcrunch.com
|
Flywire Acquired Cohort Go
Flywire Corporation (Nasdaq:FLYW), a payments enablement and software company, completed the acquisition of Cohort Go, an international education payments provider. The acquisition is expected to bring additional students, agents, and essential student services to Flywire, supporting its growth acceleration initiative and further penetrating the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
globenewswire.com
|
Byju’s Put Forward an Offer to Acquire 2U for over $1 billion
Byju’s, an Indian online education provider, offered to buy 2U Inc. in a cash deal that values the company at more than $1 billion. 2U Inc. is an ed-tech company that connects with colleges and universities to build, deliver, and support online programs. Byju’s offer of about $15 a share represents a 61% premium at the time of the offer. Byju’s has a valuation of $22 billion with backing from Tiger Global Management and Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and others.
bloomberg.com
|
GreyLion Partners and Vestar Capital Partners Have Recapitalized 360 Training
360training, a provider of online training and continuing education to regulated industries, underwent an equity recapitalization led by GreyLion Partners LP and Vestar Capital Partners. 360training helps organizations develop their workforces and remain compliant with labor regulations and industry certification mandates. The recapitalization is expected to support 360training’s growth initiatives and accelerate acquisition activity within its core markets and in new markets and geographies.
prnewswire.com
|
Preply Raised $50 Million
Preply, a Ukrainian company that has built a marketplace where language tutors and would-be students of different languages can connect for online learning sessions, has closed a round of $50 million in Series C funding. The round was led by education-focused Owl Ventures. The startup is expected to use the funds to continue building the technology that it uses to run the platform, as well as to build out more specialized content for its tutors to use. Preply reports having ~32,000 tutors from 190 countries teaching over 50 languages.
techcrunch.com
|
AntWalk Raised $7.5 Million in Funding
Antwalk, a business-to-business (B2B) education technology platform, has raised $7.5 million in funding. GSV Ventures led the round with participation from Y Combinator and Matric Partners India. Antwalk was founded in 2019 and is an e-learning company that helps organizations accelerate and transform their learning and development model to provide continuous learning for professionals. The Company serves the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), healthcare, and Software as a Service sectors, among others.
economictimes.indiatimes.com
|
|
CHERRY TREE EDUCATION FOR-PROFIT 50 INDEX |
|
For-profit education comprises more than 5% of the roughly $1.5 trillion that is spent on education in the U.S. annually. Cherry Tree created the Education For-Profit 50 Index representing a group of publicly traded for-profit education companies. |
|
The For-Profit Education 50 Index consists of companies in the Pre-K-12, Postsecondary Education, Training and Development, and Education Products and Services segments for-profit education industry. |
|
One of the benefits of a SaaS business model, is that it focuses more attention on long-term customer satisfaction. There is of course a reason why renewal rates are highly correlated to strong business valuations. While a high NPS score is a very good sign, the “revealed preference” of a customer continuing to write a check is the true test of delivering value to the customer and an area we advise companies to make a focus of how they manage the business.
For education companies, implementation is critical to a high renewal rate. Educators need to have learned how to use the products, and to see the benefits firsthand, to ensure that they will use the products as intended and not get frustrated or that the impact will be uneven.
Why do we point this all out, when many companies already know this? We occasionally wander into the realm of education policy questions, and we’re doing so again this week. This time, because it relates to the markets for education products and services! Specifically, we believe in extending the school year, or at least shortening the summer vacation and perhaps lengthening the winter break. In addition to helping reduce the “summer slide,” and saving instructional time in the Fall, it would create more opportunities for teacher training and professional development. We’re sensitive to the need for kids to have time off to be kids, and we don’t expect it to be popular with teachers, but ultimately believe we could create a better system than what was developed when we were primarily an agrarian society. One of the many benefits, would be more time for teacher training.
For a confidential discussion about your company’s strategic alternatives for exiting, merging, acquiring, or obtaining venture financing, and how trends in education affect your prospects, please contact us at 952-893-9012.
|
|
About Cherry Tree & Associates:
Cherry Tree is a Minneapolis-based investment banking firm with more than four decades of transaction experience, with education being a primary segment focus. Our services include Sell-Side M&A where ownership wants to either realize their liquidity goals or desires to recapitalize their business to better position it for future growth. Additionally, we represent Buy-Side clients in efforts to add acquisitions to complement their organic growth efforts.
|
|
|
|
Prepared by:
Chad Johnson, Managing Partner
Follow me on Twitter@ChadEricJohnson
|
|
Important Disclosures
The information included in this publication has been obtained from public sources, and is not based upon private or confidential Cherry Tree information. Cherry Tree gathers its data from sources it considers reliable. However, it does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided within this publication. Any opinions presented reflect the current judgment of the authors and are subject to change. Cherry Tree makes no warranties, expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy of this information or any opinions expressed by the authors. Officers, directors, partners of Cherry Tree and Cherry Tree proprietary investment funds may have positions in the securities of the companies discussed, and certain affiliates of Cherry Tree may recommend to specific clients the purchase and sale of securities discussed in the publication. This publication does not constitute a recommendation with respect to the securities of any company discussed herein, and it should not be construed as such. Cherry Tree or its affiliates may from time to time provide investment banking or related services to these companies. Like all Cherry Tree employees, the authors of this publication receive compensation that is affected by overall firm profitability. We undertake no obligation to update any information in this publication.
The Education For-Profit (EFP) 50 Index is a hypothetical index, and does not reflect an actual investment portfolio. Comparisons between the EFP 50 Index and the S&P 500 are for illustrative purposes only. Correlations in performance information for the EFP 50 Index and the S&P 500 should not be relied upon as indicative of risks involved in owning or holding a portfolio of securities similar to the EFP 50 Index. Past performance should not be relied upon as indicative of future performance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
