Birmingham corporate financiers advise Avantis on PE investment

Martyn Pilley, Cattaneo

Birmingham-based Cattaneo Corporate Finance has advised the shareholders of Avantis on its secondary buy-out backed by LDC.

Key Capital Partners, which invested in Avantis in March 2020 in a transaction also advised by Cattaneo, has realised its investment but has reinvested a minority stake alongside LDC as part of the latest deal.

Avantis, based in Quedgeley, Gloucester, provides virtual reality-based learning technology to the international education market.

Founded in 2007, the company has delivered its portfolio of learning products to tens of thousands of schools in more than 90 countries worldwide. It has also developed the world’s first virtual reality (VR) system designed for classrooms.

With its technology used in more than 100,000 classrooms worldwide, the education technology business has generated revenues of over £20m in the last 12 months.

LDC is backing Avantis’ existing management team, led by founder Nik Tuson and managing director Huw Williams, to further enhance its suite of products and services and continue Avantis’ international expansion.

Former Texthelp CEO Mark McCusker is joining the board as non-executive director to support Avantis’ international expansion plans. A previous LDC portfolio company, Texthelp is an international education and corporate software provider that grew revenues 40% and expanded across the US during an 18-month partnership.

The Cattaneo team of Martyn Pilley and Scott Peters provided corporate finance advice to the Avantis shareholders who also received legal advice from the Birmingham offices of Mills & Reeve (Ryan Hawley and Hayley Simonds) and Trowers & Hamlins (Mat Harvey).

LDC was advised by EY Corporate Finance, DLA and EY-Parthenon. Senior debt and working capital facilities were provided by the Birmingham team of Virgin Money (Ian Mansell and Alpesh Patel), who were advised by Pinsent Masons (David Doogan).

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