Renovus Capital Partners, an education-focused private equity firm, announced the Small Business Investment Company (“SBIC”) licensure and launch of its second fund, Renovus Capital Partners II L.P. (“Fund II”). Like its predecessor fund, Fund II will focus on investing in the education, training and human capital industries.
Fund II was oversubscribed and will close at its hard cap, bringing Fund II’s total investable capital to $300 million including SBIC leverage. New and returning limited partners include The University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), Prudential Financial, Inc. and SunTrust. The Renovus team has started investing out of this vehicle and expects to close its first investment in the next month. Fund II will expand the size and scope of investment opportunities pursued by Renovus while retaining Fund I’s investment strategy. Going forward, Fund II will be pursuing buyout and growth equity opportunities in companies with $2-$10 million of EBITDA.
Jesse Serventi, one of the three founders of Renovus noted: “In Fund I, we were successful at buying small education and training companies from founders and taking those businesses to the next level through professionalization, growth capital and fresh ideas for expansion. However, we often found ourselves with limited ability to do acquisitions because of our fund size. With $300 million of capital we have a lot more flexibility to invest additional capital behind our best management teams and build real platform companies in the education industry.”
Atif Gilani, founding partner of Renovus, added: “We are honored by the continuing support from our existing LPs who re-upped at over 100% and welcome new LPs to the Renovus family. While the past six years have been a great validation of our investment approach, we are even more excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.”
Brad Whitman, founding partner of Renovus concluded: “We are excited at continuing our relationship with the U.S. Small Business Administration. In Fund I, SBIC leverage allowed us to do small buyouts without being dependent upon the lending market while delivering enhanced returns for our investors. We expect these advantages to persist given the continuing low-cost of SBIC debentures.”
As part of launching its new fund, Renovus Capital Partners has expanded its team with the addition of three new team members and made further investments in its back office.
About Renovus
Founded in 2010, Renovus Capital Partners is an education-focused private equity fund based outside Philadelphia with $485 million in assets under management across two funds. To date, the firm has acquired fourteen portfolio companies in verticals such as corporate training, educational content, educational technology, traditional education and human capital. The firm is particularly interested in profitable and growing enterprises where the Renovus team can partner with management to create value through acquisitions, new strategic initiatives, and operational improvements.