Renovus Capital Partners Receives its SBIC License and Raises $100 Million to Support Education Companies in the Middle Market, an Area of Dynamic Growth and Investment Opportunity.
Wynnewood, PA – Renovus Capital Partners (“Renovus” or the “Fund”) announced today the receipt of its Small Business Investment Company (“SBIC”) license from the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and that it has raised $100 million for its debut fund, including matching leverage from SBA. Renovus is an education-focused private equity firm based outside of Philadelphia, PA.
Renovus was founded in January 2010 by Bradley Whitman, Atif Gilani and Jesse Serventi, three experienced private equity professionals that had previously worked together at Leeds Equity Partners, a leading education-focused private equity firm. In March 2010, they established a strategic partnership with CMS Companies, Inc. (“CMS”), a Philadelphia based wealth manager for high net worth families and entrepreneurs, and added William Landman, a senior CMS professional to their team as their fourth partner. In 2011, Renovus added Frederick Hill, with whom they had worked closely in previous education transactions and who brings experience in middle market leverage finance to the investment team.
Renovus intends to make investments in small to mid-sized education companies. The Fund will invest in ten to twelve platform companies within the five core sectors of the education industry: Schools, Training, Content, Technology and Services. The investments primarily will be control-oriented buyout transactions or other high growth opportunities.
Within the education industry sectors, the Fund serves as a one-stop source of capital to education companies. Under this approach, the Fund provides all or most of the capital necessary to buyout or recapitalize profitable and growing education companies. The Fund partners with the entrepreneurs and the management teams of companies that can grow earnings 10-15% per year.
As a licensed SBIC, the Fund, by focusing on investing in smaller businesses, will have access to low-cost federal government leverage to enhance investor returns. This leverage is provided on a 2-for-1 matching basis to capital raised from private investors and is available on very favorable terms: 4% pricing, 10-year term, no amortization or pre-payment penalties and a fixed rate at the time of borrowing.
“The education industry has tremendous growth potential and need for capital given the macro trends in the U.S. economy,” noted Bradley Whitman, a Renovus founder. “All segments of the American workforce need to learn additional skills to compete in an increasingly global and knowledge-based economy and this is creating tremendous opportunities for private companies to offer not only education and training but also the products and services to support these activities.”
“The Great Recession of recent years has only reinforced this need,” added Atif Gilani, a Renovus founder. “There is a significant mismatch between the jobs being created and the skills of the unemployed and with the public sector facing record deficits, private companies are well-positioned to step into the breach and address this pressing need for retraining.”