Quadriga launches Aspire Education auction

Alantra is advising on the process, the sources said. The sale is just getting underway, with teasers recently circulated, one of the sources said, adding that the sellside is aiming to sign the transaction over the summer.

Vienna-based Aspire posts around EUR 10m EBITDA on the back of EUR 100m revenue, the two sources said.

Financial sponsors and trade players are expected to show an interest in the asset, one of the sources said. Aspire's pipeline of potential add-on acquisitions, as well as the partnership opportunities in its space, is likely to appeal to private equity firms in particular, the same source added.

The company could also appeal to ESG-minded investors, as its training services can help promote social equality and cohesion by improving workers' skill sets and employment prospects, the source continued.

Quadriga formed Aspire in 2014 after it acquired education services provider ibis acam Bildungs earlier that year for an undisclosed sum, according to Mergermarket data. In 2018, Aspire acquired ETC - Enterprise Training Center, an Austrian B2B IT training provider.

Earlier this year, Aspire completed another add-on deal with its acquisition of brainymotion, a German provider of IT and management training courses, one of the sources said.

Aspire is a "leading platform" for professional qualification and training in the DACH region and consists of brands such as ibis acam, KAOS, ETC, Fast Lane, Academy for Law, Tax and Economics (ARS) and Stepin, according to Quadriga's website.

Aspire has around 1,000 employees, and roughly 80,000 participants are trained on its platform each year, with an emphasis on vocational and IT training and enabling "life-long learning" across different career phases, one of the sources said. Its programs can also help companies with addressing skills gaps in the labour market by training employees for specific positions or job profiles, one of the sources said.

It operates out of 86 locations in the German-speaking DACH region and offers both in-person and hybrid training courses, the source added. The region's education tech sector is a fragmented market that is still consolidating, and Aspire ranks among the largest players in its space for privately funded courses, one of the sources said.

The Alantra-led process joins a series of education tech firms that have hit the DACH auction block in recent months. eduPRO, a privately held, Austrian education provider with around EUR 12m EBITDA, is on the market in a Macquarie-led sale, as reported by Mergermarket in February.

In March, Swedish impact investor Trill Impact acquired a majority stake in German online education provider Karriere Tutor from Findos only a year after the sponsor invested in the asset. Karriere Tutor's EBITDA more than doubled to EUR 11m in its year under Findos' stewardship, Mergermarket reported in March.

KKR also invested in the European online education sector via its impact fund in 2020, when it acquired a majority stake in Spanish vocational training company MasterD, one of the sources said.

Trade players active in the space include German personnel services provider Amadeus FiRe, which acquired German education company COMCAVE Holding from sponsor Gilde Buy Out Partners in 2019.

Aspire differentiates itself from its competitors in that state funding only accounts for around 60% of its business, whereas companies such as eduPro are almost entirely reliant on government contracts and thus have lower growth potential, one of the sources said.

Aspire has also invested more heavily in digitizing its platform than smaller players on the market, the source added.

Still, while Aspire is a bit bigger in terms of sales, it is less profitable than eduPro, the second source said.

Alantra declined to comment. Quadriga and Aspire did not respond to requests for comment.

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• Topics
• Exits
• DACH
• Consumer
• Mergermarket
• Quadriga Capital
• Alantra
• Austria