Mid-market private equity firm Bowmark Capital has bought a minority share in ISIS Education Group and is providing development capital funding to support the business’s expansion plans.
Founded in 1991, ISIS is a UK-based education business providing English language, sixth-form, university pathways and educational tour programmes to UK and international students. Most recently, the group acquired home tuition provider HomeLingua through its Bucksmore Education entity.
“We believe that there is a real opportunity for a mid-sized operator to become a genuine alternative to the large multinationals”
Co-founder and Co-owner David Brown said in a statement that the company felt the time was right to secure capital that could “help us achieve our growth ambitions in both the higher education and English language sectors”.
“We believe that there is a real opportunity for a mid-sized operator to become a genuine alternative to the large multinationals that straddle the upper end of our industry,” he added.
Specifics of the deal were undisclosed but industry sources speaking with the The PIE News have speculated that the money will be used to fund expansion into the US and that Bowmark might have acquired between 25 and 45% of the company. No one at ISIS Education was available for comment.
The group currently operates six schools and 30 centres for English language students from overseas, runs a sixth-form college in Oxford (Oxford Tutorial College), and arranges educational tour programmes for 23,000 students a year.
At the end of last year, it announced its first pathway partnership with De Montfort University in Leicester via new brand ISIS Pathways and it aiming to have its first enrolments in June of this year. The group also announced two ELT acquisitions in 2013 – Eurocentres Canada and United International College in London.
Its owners, Robert Darell and David Brown (pictured below), were profiled in an article in The PIE Review about entrepreneurs, available online here.
