Existing Investor Francisco Partners Remains
Major Shareholder; Investment Supports Global Education Technology
Leader’s Mission of Accelerating Student Growth and Learning
Renaissance® (“Renaissance” or the “Company”), a global leader
in pre-K–12 educational technology, today announced its entry into
a definitive agreement for private equity funds managed by
Blackstone (NYSE:BX; “Blackstone”) to make a significant equity
investment in the Company alongside existing investors including
Francisco Partners and TPG’s The Rise Fund. Francisco Partners, a
leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with
technology businesses, acquired the Company in 2018 and will remain
a major shareholder. Blackstone’s investment will be made through
its flagship private equity vehicle.
Founded in 1986, Renaissance combines decades of experience in
assessments with personalized instruction and analytics solutions
delivering teachers and administrators the tools to plan, lessons
to teach, and the resources to motivate students to learn.
Renaissance is one of the most recognized and trusted brands in
K-12 education serving more than 40% of US schools and more than 16
million students worldwide. The Company’s assessment-driven,
integrated instructional ecosystem enables schools and districts to
benchmark student progress; teach, plan, and respond to students’
needs in real-time with personalized instruction; and offer
supplemental student literacy and math learning software
solutions.
The new investment from Blackstone will enable the Company to
further accelerate organic growth initiatives and innovation across
its product suite. Building on the platform’s growth under
Francisco Partners, the investment will also enable the Company to
continue executing on its targeted acquisition strategy following
its recent acquisitions earlier this year of Lalilo, a
research-based foundational literacy program; and Nearpod, a leader
in teacher-facilitated instructional delivery.
Chris Bauleke, CEO of Renaissance, said: “As technology
continues to change, and as teachers and students connect in new
ways, our commitment to empower teachers, students, and
administrators is unwavering. Now, together with Blackstone and
Francisco Partners we have even more opportunity to further our
mission to accelerate learning for all worldwide.”
Eli Nagler, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, said:
“Chris and the Renaissance team have done an exceptional job
building a next generation technology platform to meet the rapidly
evolving needs of today’s classroom and beyond – where digital
tools play a critical role. We’re thrilled to join with Francisco
Partners to support the continued expansion of the business as
educators increasingly leverage technology to provide students with
personalized learning solutions.”
Jason Brein, Partner at Francisco Partners, and Alan Ni,
Principal at Francisco Partners, said: “As a leading K-12 edtech
software platform, Renaissance is at the forefront of developing
innovative solutions that offer new ways to teach and learn across
remote, hybrid, and in-person classrooms. It has been our pleasure
to partner with Chris and the Renaissance team over the last few
years as they have scaled their integrated platform and product
suite to best support the needs of students, teachers,
administrators, and parents. We are excited to continue our
partnership and look forward to working together with Blackstone to
further support Renaissance’s mission.”
Blackstone’s investment is a continuation of the firm’s
high-conviction thematic focus on the fast-growing education
technology industry. It follows recent investments through its
private equity business in Ellucian, a leading software provider to
universities, and through its Blackstone Growth (BXG) business in
Articulate, a SaaS training and development platform for
companies.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as lead financial advisor to
Renaissance, Macquarie Capital also served as a financial advisor
and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal advisor. SVB Technology
Investment Banking served as financial advisor to Blackstone, and
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal advisor.
About Renaissance
As a global leader in assessment, reading, and math solutions
for pre-K–12 schools and districts, Renaissance is committed to
providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate
growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success.
Renaissance solutions reach more than 40% of US schools and more
than a half million students in other regions across the world. The
Renaissance portfolio includes Star Assessments, for reliable,
accurate insights into K–12 student learning; myIGDIs, for accurate
assessment of early learning; myON, to increase students’ access to
high-quality reading materials; Accelerated Reader, to support
independent reading practice; Freckle, for teacher-led
differentiated instruction; Schoolzilla, to give educators
actionable insights into trends in student attendance and
achievement; Lalilo, to develop critical foundational skills; and
Nearpod, for teacher-facilitated instructional delivery. For more
information, visit Renaissance.com.
About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We
seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our
investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which
we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible
capital to help companies solve problems. Our $731 billion in
assets under management include investment vehicles focused on
private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences,
growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real
assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further
information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone
on Twitter @Blackstone.
About Francisco Partners
Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that
specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled
businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners
has invested in more than 300 technology companies, making it one
of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology
industry. With more than $25 billion in assets under management,
the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge
and operational expertise can help companies realize their full
potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit
www.franciscopartners.com.
About The Rise Funds
The Rise Funds are a core pillar of TPG Rise, TPG’s global
impact investing platform. Founded in 2016 by TPG in partnership
with Bono and Jeff Skoll, The Rise Funds invest behind impact
entrepreneurs and growth-stage, high potential, mission-driven
companies that are focused on achieving the United Nations’
Sustainable Development Goals. The Rise Funds deliver capabilities
and expertise across a wide variety of sectors and countries at
scale, focusing on opportunities in climate and conservation,
education, food and agriculture, financial technology, healthcare,
and technology.
With more than $12 billion in assets across The Rise Funds, TPG
Rise Climate, and Evercare Health Fund, the TPG Rise platform is
the world’s largest private markets impact investing platform
committed to achieving measurable, positive social and
environmental outcomes alongside competitive financial returns. For
more information, visit www.therisefund.com or @therisefund on
Instagram.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211109006057/en/
For Renaissance Learning: Linda Germain
linda.germain@renaissance.com (917) 930-5389
For Blackstone: Matt Anderson matthew.anderson@blackstone.com
(518) 248-7310
OR
Mariel Seidman-Gati mariel.seidmangati@blackstone.com (917)
698-1674
For Francisco Partners: Dan Zacchei dzacchei@sloanepr.com (212)
446-1882
OR
Kate Sylvester ksylvester@sloanepr.com (212) 446-1860
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