Jan 08, 2021

EdTech / Education PE

Who are the largest players in the EdTech and broader Education/Knowledge space? Some bigger-ish names I've got are Providence, Riverside, Vistria, Leeds and maybe Veritas? Is it basically just these guys plus a bunch of LMM buyout funds?

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techthesis

Rank: Gorilla
591

Jan 8, 2021 - 4:16am

Education and edtech are smaller markets with only a few assets of scale so there are usually not enough deals to become a single large PE firm of scale in the space (unlike SaaS/enterprise software, for example):

Thoma Bravo - owns Instructure ("Canvas" at universities), Frontline Education (admin and HR software for schools)
Vista - just acquired PluralSight (IT education), PowerSchool (+PeopleAdmin w/Onex, back-end software for K-12)
Francisco - merged MyON and Renaissance, two of the best edtech assets in the space (K-12 learning analytics and testing tools), owns Civitas (higher ed analytics and testing)
Permira - owns Curriculum Associates (K-12 testing, prep and tools), owned Renaissance before selling to H&F, EF Education First
H&F - owned Renaissance before selling to Francisco
Berkshire - owns Curriculum Associates (K-12 testing, prep and tools)
Platinum - tried to buy Navient (student loan servicer, technically an education investment)

Certainly Providence (Blackboard) and Veritas (Campus Mgmt, Edcentric) as you mention. And Leeds is a rare education only PE firm (doubt they will remain this specialized if they grow larger).

Smaller names of note: Quad-C, LLR, Golden Gate (Learning Experience)

You could also get into growth equity firms/arms of megafunds here and foreign education assets (esp in Asia): Warburg (Inspired, Aixuexi), GA (Ruanguru, Open Classrooms), KKR NGT (KnowBe4), Bain Cap Double Impact (PresenceLearning, Penn Foster) but that is likely too long a list.

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Anonymous

Jan 11, 2021 - 7:02pm

Immensely helpful, thank you so much!

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Hugh Myron

Rank: Senior Neanderthal
4,446

Jan 8, 2021 - 11:50am

Above list is great, SB'd. One name I'll add is Renovus Capital, founded by ex-Leeds guys.

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Anonymous

Jan 8, 2021 - 12:03pm

Veritas (Campus Management, Cambium)
Carlyle Mid Market (Accelerate Learning / STEMscopes)
Madison Dearborn (Carnegie Learning, Lightspeed)
Silverlake (Weld North)
TPG (EVERFI)

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Anonymous

Jan 8, 2021 - 10:29pm

Lol - downvote me into oblivion, but Blackboard is (was) probably the worst run EdTech company in the world. Providence has made some moves to help them restrike and I hope they get a decent return, but wow! Just look at the story around why Instructure was founded to see what I mean

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Anonymous

Jan 8, 2021 - 11:03pm

This is an ignorant answer. You're neglecting the fact that Blackboard was dominant for a long time. There are complete and total "generational" differences between these companies.

Blackboard was the v1 and Instructure was the v2. The biggest difference was cloud vs. on-premise capabilities. Blackboard was circumstantially on its heels in having to manage a full on-prem to cloud transition.

There are a number of players competing to be the v3 currently.

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arb432

Rank: Baboon
111

Jan 11, 2021 - 7:41pm

Other than the ones already listed, you'll see Quad Partners a lot in the lower mid-market PE space. They solely focus on education/EdTech.

Lots of growth equity funds have been active in EdTech. Some examples: Insight (Nearpod, Turnitin, Achieve, Illuminate), JMI (CampusLogic, Schoology), Spectrum (ExamSoft, Teachers Pay Teachers, DataCamp), Summit, LLR Partners

On the venture side, Owl Ventures is a well-known fund that's 100% focused on EdTech.

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