KKR to acquire Teaching Strategies

KKR is to acquire Teaching Strategies, a provider of curriculum, assessment and family engagement tools to the early childhood education market, from global growth investor Summit Partners. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Teaching Strategies aims to empower and inspire early childhood educators as they support the development of our youngest learners during the critical, formative years from birth through third grade.

Founded in 1988, the Company is the largest provider of comprehensive ECE solutions for holistic child development, offering the leading digital early learning platform, integrating curriculum, assessment and engagement tools for educators and families. Teaching Strategies employs a whole-child teaching philosophy designed to support and nurture all areas of children’s development and learning from social-emotional and cognitive skills to literacy, math and science.

“Since our founding, Teaching Strategies has been steadfast in our mission of supporting educators and the children and families they serve through innovative resources and technologies,” says John Olsen, CEO of Teaching Strategies. “We are thrilled to have KKR join us on this mission and look forward to leveraging their global expertise to build on that commitment to children, educators and families. We are also incredibly thankful for our partnership with Summit Partners, which has been instrumental in getting us to this point and positioning us for continued success.”

Webster Chua, Partner at KKR, says: “The foundation of a strong early childhood education is of critical importance when it comes to helping our children succeed in school and in life. We are excited to be supporting the Teaching Strategies team as they continue to advance the field of early childhood education through research-based, technology-enabled resources that allow educators to be significantly more effective with far more students in delivering a better education.”

Len Ferrington, Managing Director at Summit Partners, says: “We are proud to have supported Teaching Strategies’ transformative growth over the past few years and look forward to seeing the Company continue to thrive with the support of KKR.”

KKR will be acquiring Teaching Strategies through its Core Investments strategy, which represents capital with a longer-term investment horizon. Teaching Strategies is KKR’s latest investment in the education technology sector and follows investments in Weld North, Education Perfect, OverDrive, Burning Glass and MasterD, among others.

Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc is acting as financial advisor and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal advisor to KKR. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc is acting as lead financial advisor to Summit and the Company with RW Baird & Co acting as an additional financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acting as legal advisor.KKR to Acquire Teaching Strategies.