Oakley Capital Investments (OCI) has announced that Oakley Capital Fund IV, in which it has a stake, has invested in Affinitas Education (www.affinitasedu.com), a company established by education entrepreneur Victor Lundsten with the intention of building a new global K12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) schools group. OCI’s indirect contribution via Fund IV will be circa £10m.
OCI says that Affinitas has completed its first three acquisitions in Spain and Mexico together comprising nine premium, private schools with more than 8,500 students combined. It also says that Affinitas maintains a large and growing pipeline of active K12 opportunities focusing on Europe and the Americas.
The investment in Affinitas is Oakley’s seventh platform deal in the education sector. Previously, Oakley has helped grow offline and online platforms across pre-K, K12, Higher Education, after-school tutoring, corporate training and edtech markets.
The K12 market
OCI says that K12 education is an attractive circa $3.5tn international market with strong, long-term growth drivers. Global private-pay schooling represents around 11% of this spend, and this is expected to grow 7% per annum through to 2030 as families prioritise education spending. At the same time, globalisation is driving demand for English speaking education as a path to international universities and high-paying professions. Many K12 schools are owned and operated on a single site basis, providing opportunities for consolidation.