Education Acquisitions in 2025

Ellucian has completed the acquisition of Anthology's Student Information Systems (SIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business, having been the successful bidder in Anthology's Chapter 11 process. The deal transfers more than 260 Anthology SIS and ERP customers to Ellucian and is intended to provide continuity for customers while expanding Ellucian's higher-education product and services ecosystem.

LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, has made a minority growth investment in Cheshire-based myHappymind to support the company’s expansion into more UK and international schools and ongoing product development. The funding will back the management team’s plans to scale the digital mental health and wellbeing programmes currently delivered to over 1,900 schools.

Broadtree Partners, a lower middle market private equity firm based in Charlotte, has acquired The CFO Project, a membership-based education and mentorship platform for accountants, CPAs and bookkeepers. The deal—supported by Salem Investment Partners—will position The CFO Project to scale its digital Certified CFO program and community of 500+ members under new CEO Dyanna Salcedo.

CM Labs Simulations has acquired GlobalSim, a Utah-based developer and manufacturer of high-end training simulators, to strengthen its simulation-based workforce development offerings. The deal expands CM Labs' U.S. footprint (Salt Lake City) and adds manufacturing resources and industry expertise to enhance training products for ports, construction, industrial and military customers.

Following a 2024 merger, PeopleGrove and CORE Higher Education Group have combined under the PeopleGrove brand and launched a unified website and integrated product suite. The combined company will integrate CORE’s experiential and clinical education management solutions with PeopleGrove’s engagement and career-readiness platform to better serve colleges, universities, and health-science programs.

Trivest Partners and Lunchline Partners have launched Lunchline Youth Brands, a new platform to scale early childhood education and youth enrichment franchisors, and announced a strategic growth investment in LeafSpring Schools. LeafSpring, founded in 1989 and headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia, is a franchisor of early education programs and summer camps across the Southeastern United States and will join the new platform to support accelerated growth and franchise expansion.

School Specialty, a leading PreK-12 learning environments and supplies provider headquartered in Greenville, Wisconsin, has acquired Nasco Education U.S., a developer and distributor of hands-on instructional materials based in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. The acquisition expands School Specialty’s product portfolio and procurement efficiencies for K-12 customers while both businesses operate independently during an integration period.

Tyler Technologies has acquired Edu.Link Incorporated (Edulink), a Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania-based provider of K‑12 educator evaluation, compliance tracking, and workflow automation software. The acquisition expands Tyler's School ERP HR capabilities by integrating Edulink's PAETEP and Comply products to provide unified HR, compliance, and operational workflows for K‑12 districts.

360training.com, Inc. has acquired UST Training, a leading provider of state‑approved Class A/B and Class C online operator training for underground storage tank (UST) systems. The acquisition brings UST Training's Tank Savvy content and regulatory expertise onto 360training's platform to expand regulated EHS training offerings and accelerate growth in tank‑safety and fuel‑system compliance markets.

Japan Educational Foundation (JEF) has completed its acquisition of LIM College, a New York City–based college focused on the business of fashion. LIM will remain independently operated with its name, campus, and leadership retained while joining JEF's global portfolio to expand international academic and student opportunities.

KKR has increased its investment in Lighthouse Learning Group, with additional participation from PSP Investments, as Lighthouse prepares for a new phase of platform expansion across major Indian metropolitan regions. KKR will remain the majority stakeholder while the fresh capital will support expansion of preschools and K‑12 schools, enhance teaching capabilities, technology initiatives, and operational systems.

TPG’s Rise Fund has made a minority growth investment in Healthcademia, joining majority shareholder G Square Capital to support the healthcare education provider’s next phase of expansion. The capital will be used to accelerate organic growth and pursue acquisitions as Healthcademia scales its technology-enabled healthcare education programs across Europe and the Americas.

KEV Group has acquired TES Software, a provider of purpose-built financial and administrative solutions for K–12 schools, strengthening KEV's U.S. presence and expanding its K–12 school finance platform. The acquisition broadens KEV's product footprint across several U.S. states (notably Utah and Alabama) and will help the combined business deliver unified accounting, payments, reporting, and time-management capabilities to K–12 districts.

CoreTrust has acquired BuyQ, a group purchasing organization serving charter and private schools, expanding CoreTrust’s procurement platform into a $22+ billion segment serving more than 4,000 schools. BuyQ will retain its brand and leadership (President Daniel Casselli; founders Marco and Christine Rafanelli remain involved) and the acquisition closed on November 18, 2025, with CoreTrust positioning the deal as a strategic entry into the K–12 charter and private school market.

Dublin-headquartered learning technology company LearnUpon has acquired Courseau, an AI-assisted course authoring platform founded in Berlin. The acquisition integrates Courseau’s AI-native content-creation capabilities into LearnUpon’s LMS to accelerate course development, address the content bottleneck, and expand LearnUpon’s AI-driven learning offering.

Main Street Capital Corporation completed a $47.0 million minority recapitalization of a leading swim school franchisee that operates more than 40 locations across ten U.S. states. The investment included a combination of first-lien senior secured term debt and a direct minority equity stake and was completed in partnership with the company's existing owners and management.

EnterOne has acquired Lumious in an acqui-hire to broaden its IT learning and development capabilities, particularly in cloud, DevOps, and AI-driven training. Lumious will continue to operate under its brand during the transition while leveraging EnterOne’s global infrastructure to expand service offerings across North America.

DataCamp has acquired Optima, a Dubai-based AI-native learning platform, and will integrate Optima’s adaptive learning technology across its courses while bringing Optima founder Yusuf Saber into DataCamp as Chief AI Officer. The Optima team will join DataCamp, and the company is launching DataCamp Classrooms in the UAE to provide free access to educators, students and government employees as part of the regional expansion and product capability build-out.

Edmentum has acquired MajorClarity from Paper to integrate career discovery, academic planning, CTE curricula, and certification prep into its Edmentum Career offering. The acquisition expands Edmentum's K-12 career-connected learning capabilities and aims to deliver an end-to-end solution for secondary students' college and career readiness.

Cotulla Education, the parent of career-focused schools including the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, has acquired American Lineman College, a Bakersfield-based electrical line-worker training provider. The acquisition adds line-worker and utility training to Cotulla's portfolio to help address skilled-labor shortages and strengthen employer-driven workforce pipelines.

Spartan Education Group (SEG) has acquired Aviator Air Flight School, LLC, a flight training location and FBO at Grand Prairie Municipal Airport in Grand Prairie, Texas. SEG assumed ownership and operations on October 15, 2025, expanding its nationwide pilot training network and adding FAA Part 61 flight training capacity in the Dallas–Fort Worth market.

K12 Coalition has acquired Keys to Literacy (KTL) and Professional Development Institute (PDI), expanding its portfolio of K–12 professional learning, literacy curriculum, and teacher development solutions. The deal brings Keys to Literacy’s evidence-based programs (in 500+ districts) and PDI’s 380,000+ teacher enrollments into K12 Coalition’s single, outcomes-driven ecosystem to scale professional development and support district partners.

Campus, an online two-year college, has acquired Sizzle AI, an AI-powered learning platform used by over 1.7 million users. Jerome Pesenti (former Meta AI chief) will join as CTO as Campus integrates Sizzle's adaptive learning technology to enhance its live online instruction and accelerate its engineering roadmap.

Banyan Software has acquired Veritech S.A., which does business as Classter, a Greece-based provider of a modular, cloud-based student information system used by more than 500 organizations and 500,000 users worldwide. Banyan — a permanent-capital acquirer of niche enterprise software businesses — said the acquisition will support Classter’s growth while preserving its mission and product focus.

Cordance has acquired AppsAnywhere, a provider of application delivery and IT management software for higher education, to deepen its education technology portfolio and align the product with existing Cordance holdings. The deal pairs AppsAnywhere’s student-centric application delivery platform with LabStats’ analytics to expand capabilities for universities and improve IT efficiency and student experiences.

TZP Group completed a strategic investment in True Lacrosse to launch True Sports Group, a national youth sports platform headquartered in Illinois. The investment will support True Sports' expansion of youth travel teams, tournaments, camps and clinics and enable organic growth and add-on acquisitions while partnering with co-founders Jake Deane and Mike Gabel.

Wilson Language Training has acquired Valley Speech, the literacy organization founded by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, to expand evidence-based literacy solutions for multilingual learners. The deal brings Valley Speech's Esperanza Spanish literacy program together with Wilson's English-focused Wilson Reading System to broaden structured multiliteracy and professional development offerings for educators.

IXL Learning has acquired Evan-Moor Educational Publishers, a Monterey-based creator of PreK–8 workbooks and instructional resources. The acquisition expands IXL's content offerings and strengthens its reach into print and digital K–8 curriculum resources and subscription services for teachers and families.

AlphaBEST Education has acquired iCAMP, a STEM-focused summer camp and enrichment provider operating in New York and Connecticut. The acquisition expands AlphaBEST’s footprint by roughly 100 schools and two states while integrating iCAMP’s STEM programming into AlphaBEST’s after-school and summer offerings.

Volaris Group, an operating group of Constellation Software Inc., has acquired Alpine Testing Solutions Inc., a psychometric consulting and test-security provider based in Orem, Utah. Alpine will join Volaris' Smith Portfolio and remain led by CEO Stephen Price as the acquisition expands Volaris into the workforce-management vertical and strengthens its credentialing and assessment capabilities.

EdSights, an AI-powered student voice and retention platform for higher education, secured an $80 million strategic growth investment from JMI Equity. The funding will be used to scale EdSights' product, expand its team, and accelerate adoption across colleges and universities nationwide to improve student engagement and retention.

Ignite Reading, a San Francisco-based virtual tutoring and literacy company, has acquired Esteam, an AI-driven education startup that uses speech recognition to assess reading and map student skills. The deal brings Esteam's automatic speech recognition and assessment capabilities into Ignite Reading's high-dosage 1:1 tutoring platform to enable more personalized, real-time instruction; financial terms were not disclosed.

Brazilian edtech Árvore acquired children’s literature curator A Taba and completed an acquihire of AI startup Typper to accelerate product development, expand pedagogical offerings and scale internationalization. The deals (financial terms undisclosed) bring A Taba’s curriculum expertise and Typper’s AI capabilities into Árvore’s platform used by millions of students across Brazil.

Beech Tree Private Equity has completed an investment to acquire Inspiro Learning, a UK-based vocational and technical training provider; existing owner Inspirit Capital has partially reinvested and Investec provided funding. The capital will be used to enhance service delivery, expand technical training into adjacent sectors, and support strategic acquisitions to accelerate organic growth.

Oakley Capital’s Fund VI is investing new capital into its K12 platform Affinitas (Affinitas Education) alongside two third‑party co‑investors, while Oakley Capital Fund IV is selling part of its stake and retaining a minority. The injection of funds is intended to support further organic and M&A-led expansion of Affinitas, which now comprises ~20 schools and around 14,000 students worldwide.

95 Percent Group, a portfolio company of Leeds Equity Partners, has acquired All About Learning Press, a provider of structured, multisensory literacy products for homeschool families and educators. The acquisition expands 95 Percent Group's offerings beyond public-school programs to include All About Learning Press' All About Reading, All About Spelling, and new All About Math products, targeting homeschool and tutoring markets.

Taurus Capital Partners has made a platform investment to form and recapitalize Pathlight Learning, a leading franchisee of Primrose Schools, partnering with existing owner and manager Sarah Albahadily and other prior co-owners. The recapitalization provides Pathlight with resources to expand its Primrose school footprint nationally while retaining management continuity.

Atlanta-based private equity firm Eagle Merchant Partners has made a control / strategic growth investment in Sacramento-based Guidewell Education, with Graycliff Partners providing follow-on unitranche debt and minority equity to support the transaction. As part of the partnership, Guidewell—an education platform serving ~22,000 students annually—acquired Reach Cambridge, a UK-based summer academic and cultural program operator, to expand its international footprint.

Ethos Software portfolio company Peterson's LLC has acquired Animal Behavior College (ABC), a leading vocational school for pet care professionals headquartered in Valencia, California. ABC will become a division of Peterson's, expanding the platform's vocational and certification offerings in the pet care market.

Climb Credit, a student payment platform, has acquired Career Karma, an education discovery platform that guides prospective students toward job training programs. The deal brings together Climb’s financing and enrollment expertise with Career Karma’s large discovery and advising audience to improve program matching, streamline enrollment, and expand Career Karma’s reach into new high-demand industries.

Arbiter, a K–12 athletic and event management platform, has acquired BigTeams to expand its reach across U.S. high schools and deepen its product offering. The deal combines Arbiter with BigTeams and rSchoolToday to support thousands of schools and millions of users, creating a combined organization of over 150 U.S.-based employees.

The Longreach Group, partnering with independent sponsor Our Billion Ventures, completed a take-private of Lightworks Corp (TSE:4267), a Japan-based cloud learning management and HCM platform. The tender offer priced Lightworks at JPY 2,179 per share (a ~68.9% premium) with the deal intended to accelerate product and service growth while retaining CEO Natsuo Eguchi.

Affinity Esports Group, a Connecticut-based esports operator, has acquired CT Esports Academy and expanded its partnership with the Riverbrook Regional YMCA to bring esports programming to Wilton. The combined offering will include after-school programs, game nights, club teams, private coaching, and other youth-focused esports and educational services starting this fall.

Edcetera, the Eden Capital‑backed provider of career education, has acquired Pulse Radiology Institute (PRI), an online school offering an Associate of Science in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The acquisition combines PRI’s degree programs with Pulse Radiology’s didactic and clinical placement services, enabling Edcetera to expand into degree‑granting allied health programs and introduce new offerings such as an RN to BSN pathway.

RiverGlade Capital, a healthcare-focused private equity firm, has formed a partnership with Custom Learning Designs (CLD), a Belmont, Massachusetts-based provider of technology-enabled sales training for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies. Terms were not disclosed; CLD’s CEO Donna Kilcoyne will remain in place and the management team will continue to run day-to-day operations as RiverGlade supports the company’s organic growth and strategic M&A plans.

Sonoran Desert Institute (SDI), an employee-owned online college based in Tempe, Arizona, has acquired CL Driving School, LLC, a CDL/truck-driving vocational school headquartered in Indian Trail, North Carolina. The transaction closed on July 23, 2025 and will expand SDI's vocational program offerings and physical footprint with CL Driving School's campuses in Indian Trail and Charlotte.

Sdui Group, a German provider of cloud-based administrative software for K-12 schools, has secured a growth investment led by Bain Capital's Tech Opportunities fund with participation from existing investors HV Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds. The funding will be used to expand Sdui's product offerings and support its goal of becoming a unified digital platform for education across Europe.

Curriculum Associates has acquired Stile Education, an Australia-based provider of interactive, NGSS-aligned middle school science curriculum, to add science to its instructional portfolio and expand Stile's reach into U.S. classrooms. Stile will continue to operate independently in Australia while leveraging CA's distribution and district relationships to scale adoption in the United States.

Infinedi Partners' portfolio company CEA CAPA Education Abroad has completed the acquisition of CIS Abroad, CISaustralia, and Barcelona SAE from parent company Global Educators. The deal expands CEA CAPA's global footprint and program offerings—bringing an additional ~4,000 students annually into a combined platform that now serves more than 15,000 students across dozens of countries and study centers.

The Kimberton Group, led by Mason Christensen and Duncan Hamilton, has acquired Quality Maritime Training, a U.S. Coast Guard–approved maritime training school based in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The purchase expands The Kimberton Group's maritime training portfolio and adds advanced-level courses and certifications, strengthening its presence in the Southeast U.S.