Novax sells 28% stake in EMG to Verdane

The stake is worth SEK 100m, valuing the company at around SEK 300m, according to data from DI Digital.

Verdane drew equity for this transaction from Verdane Capital X, which closed on SEK 6bn in January 2019. The fund invests in companies with SEK 50-500m revenues.

The three founders of EMG who opted to reinvest in the company now own the majority of the company. Another co-founder also opted to keep shares in EMG.

Verdane plans to expand the company in the Nordic region and Germany, and in recently entered markets such as France and the UK.

Jonathan Bui, communications manager at Verdane, said: "EMG is well placed to capture the trend of education marketing budgets increasingly being spent online among private players. A fundamental trend shift lies in lead-based marketing spend for education – that is, to increasingly pay per student lead or even per accepted student."

Novax is owned by investor Axel Johnson and is said to have made a good return on this investment, according to DI Digital.

EMG generated sales of SEK 207m in 2018 and is expecting to generate SEK 270m in 2019. Revenue is generated by the sale of advertisements.

Previous funding
Novax acquired its stake in the company in 2010. EMG went on to acquire the website Allastudier.se in 2016.

Company
EMG is a marketing business that runs search engines allowing education providers to promote their services. It operates 19 local sites in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the US. It also operates two global websites, Educations.com and SearchMBA.com. Founded in 2001 and based in Stockholm, the company employs 150 people.

People
Verdane Capital Partners – Jakob Tolleryd (partner).
Novax – Joakim Skarborg (managing director); Erica Sandelin Ekelund (investment manager).
Educations Media Group – Frederik Söderlindh (CEO).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• Nordics
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• Sweden
• Verdane Capital Partners
• Minority investing