Education Acquisitions in Minnesota

Justin Nihiser, Barry Gibson, and Matt Rogers have completed a majority acquisition of WonderPlay Brands, the parent company of Kidcreate Studio. The new ownership group plans to invest in franchise support, marketing, curriculum development, and disciplined expansion to grow the youth art enrichment franchise nationwide.

Charter Impact, a national provider of back-office financial and operational services for charter schools, has acquired EdFinMN, a Minneapolis-based school finance and back-office firm. The deal brings EdFinMN’s local team and client relationships into Charter Impact’s platform to expand capacity, technology, and service offerings for Minnesota charter schools as part of Charter Impact’s national expansion strategy.

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.

Avathon Capital, a private equity firm focused on education and workforce businesses, has acquired Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center, a founder-owned network of 25 early childhood centers serving Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. The transaction will keep Jessica Johnsen as CEO and adds an experienced board to support growth as Avathon expands its early childhood education platform across the Midwest.

Arbiter announced the acquisition of rSchoolToday, a provider of K-12 athletic and event management software, to create a more integrated platform for schools, districts, and state associations. The transaction combines the companies' scheduling, registration, payments, and facilities management tools to enhance operational efficiency and expand product capabilities for K‑12 customers.

Hometown Ticketing, a Nexa Equity portfolio company, and Schoolfundr have merged to form a unified business operating as Hometown. The combined platform will provide event management, digital ticketing, fee-free fundraising and communications tools to serve over 17,000 schools, colleges and community organizations across the United States.

Texthelp and n2y have completed a transformational merger to create a unified assistive-technology and special-education platform, and have named Craig Powell as CEO. Martin McKay will remain as Executive Chairman and investor Five Arrows played a key role in bringing the organizations together; a new combined brand will be announced in the future.

Regent LP has acquired Scantron from Transom Capital Group. The transaction gives Regent a platform in education technology and assessment solutions, enabling investment in Scantron’s digital assessment, analytics and service offerings to accelerate product and market expansion.

Tierra Encantada, a Spanish-immersion early education franchisor founded in 2013, received a $38 million minority growth investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE). The capital will support nationwide expansion, franchise growth and operational scaling while the founder-led management team continues to run the business.

Discovery Education, a Clearlake Capital-backed global edtech company, has acquired Minneapolis-based Pivot Interactives, a provider of interactive video-based science labs and activities. The acquisition expands Discovery Education's science education toolset by adding Pivot's phenomena-based interactive video platform to its K-12 offerings; terms were not disclosed.

O2B Kids, a Spire Capital portfolio company, has acquired Children of Tomorrow, a four-location early education provider based in the greater Minneapolis region. The acquisition expands O2B Kids' footprint into Minnesota and positions the Children of Tomorrow team to support O2B's Midwest growth plans.

Modern Campus, backed by The Riverside Company, has acquired Augusoft, the Minneapolis-based provider of Lumens enrollment-management SaaS for continuing and corporate education programs. The add-on expands Modern Campus’s product set (Destiny One + Lumens), extends its reach across nearly 2,000 North American colleges and universities, and deepens its capabilities in continuing and workforce education.

BARBRI Global, a portfolio company of Francisco Partners, has acquired West Academic from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. The deal combines BARBRI's global legal education offerings with West Academic's leading casebooks, treatises and digital learning products to broaden product offerings for law students and law schools.

Teacher Created Materials (TCM) acquired Minneapolis-based Free Spirit Publishing effective November 30, 2021. Free Spirit will continue operating from its Minneapolis location under the Free Spirit brand while TCM integrates editorial, sales & marketing, and operations teams to expand its social-emotional learning and early childhood product offerings.

Educate 360 Professional Training Partners, a portfolio company of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, has acquired Pierian Data, a provider of Python, data science and machine learning training. Pierian founder Jose Portilla will remain with the business as Head of Data Science as Educate 360 integrates Pierian's online and instructor-led offerings to expand its data science training capabilities for individuals and enterprise customers.

Quad-C Management has completed a majority acquisition of Learners Edge, an online training and certification provider for K–12 teachers, from L Squared Capital Partners. The transaction positions Learners Edge for continued growth under Quad-C, which plans to expand its geographic footprint, broaden services and invest in technology and human capital to accelerate growth.

The Vistria Group made a strategic growth investment in Edmentum and will become the company's majority stakeholder. Existing investors New Mountain Finance Corporation and funds managed by BlackRock will retain ownership positions as Vistria supports Edmentum's expansion of K–Adult digital curriculum and assessment offerings.

PowerSchool has acquired Hoonuit, a leading K-12 education analytics and data management provider, from Renovus Capital Partners. The deal adds Hoonuit’s analytics and data-management capabilities—supporting more than 14.5 million students and multiple state deployments—to PowerSchool’s K-12 product portfolio to deliver unified analytics across SIS, LMS, enrollment, ERP and talent systems.

Health & Safety Institute (HSI), a Waud Capital Partners–backed leader in EHS and workforce development software and training, has acquired e-learning provider Vado, Inc. The acquisition expands HSI's content catalog and enables customers to access workplace safety, compliance, and business skills training from a single provider.

Trinity3 Technology, a Rotunda Capital Partners portfolio company, has merged with FireFly Computers to create a larger K‑12 technology platform. Rotunda provided additional equity for the transaction alongside co-investments from First Capital Partners and minority investments from Kari Phillips and Devang Shah; the combined business will retain operating locations in St. Paul and Arden Hills, Minnesota.

Top Hat has acquired bluedoor, an independent publisher of science-focused higher education lab manuals and course materials. Top Hat will convert bluedoor’s print content (including more than 400 labs and course materials used by hundreds of authors and adopted at over 400 U.S. institutions) into interactive digital courseware to expand its content offerings and accelerate digital transformation in higher education.

Infobase, a Centre Lane Partners portfolio company, has acquired Hoonuit's Professional Development and Training Platform, including more than 1,600 courses and extensive video content. The purchase adds capability for professional development, micro-credentials, and learning delivery to Infobase's Learning Ecosystem while allowing Hoonuit to refocus on its analytics and data-management offerings.

Dubuque-based Kendall Hunt Publishing Company has acquired Paradigm Publishing, LLC (dba Paradigm Education Solutions), a provider of post-secondary print and digital learning solutions and the Cirrus cloud-based courseware platform. The acquisition adds Paradigm's content, technology and customer base to accelerate Kendall Hunt's expansion in higher education and career-focused learning markets.

Transom Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based middle market private equity firm, has acquired Scantron Corporation, a global provider of assessment, testing, managed IT and data capture solutions. The transaction transfers Scantron from Harland Clarke Holdings to Transom, which will invest in the business to expand its assessment, certification testing and technology offerings.

First Capital Partners has completed a debt and equity co-investment in Trinity3 Technology to support Rotunda Capital Partners' recapitalization of the business. Trinity3, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a value‑added reseller of tablets, laptops, PCs and related support services serving the K‑12 market across the United States.

Illuminate Education, a PE-backed provider of K-12 assessment and data systems, has acquired FastBridge Learning, an evidence-based K-12 assessment platform developed with researchers from the University of Minnesota. FastBridge's ownership group — including founders Dr. Ted Christ and Dr. Zoheb Borbora, CEO Terri Soutor, and the University of Minnesota — was advised by Cherry Tree on the transaction; Illuminate is backed by Insight Venture Partners.

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners affiliate has acquired West Academic Publishing from Eureka Equity Partners. West Academic, a St. Paul-based provider of law school textbooks and digital learning materials, was grown under Eureka from roughly 50 to more than 80 employees and will move to Levine Leichtman's ownership to support continued product and market expansion.

Microsoft has acquired Flipgrid, a video-based social learning platform used by educators and students in over 180 countries. The acquisition brings Flipgrid's engagement-focused edtech capabilities into Microsoft's education portfolio, with Microsoft keeping the Flipgrid brand and making the platform free for schools.

An affiliate of private equity firm Thoma Bravo completed the acquisition of PLATO Learning, Inc. for approximately $143 million on May 25, 2010. PLATO stockholders received $5.60 per share in cash and PLATO Learning’s common shares were delisted from NASDAQ following closing.