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San Francisco; London, UK – 12th December 2023 – The Rise Fund, TPG’s multi-sector global impact investing strategy, and Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement together with Stirling Square Capital Partners to acquire a majority investment in Outcomes First Group (“OFG”), a United Kingdom-based provider of best-in-class education to young people and adults with autism, learning disabilities, and other complex Special Education Needs (“SEN”). The Rise Fund is making a majority investment in OFG with Investcorp making a minority investment.

OFG is one of the UK’s leading SEN providers, operating 56 high quality schools that serve over 3,000 students between 3-25 years of age.

“Outcomes First Group expands access to high-quality education for a neuro-diverse population at a time when there is a growing demand and a demonstrated need for impact-driven organizations that prioritize the highest standards of education, therapeutic care, and deep operational engagement. Our investments are predicated on our ability to achieve quantifiable impact and positive outcomes alongside strong business performance – OFG has proven its ability to deliver on all of these goals simultaneously. We look forward to working with the team to enhance their clinical capabilities and we are committed to providing their students with the highest standards of education and care,” said Hichem Omezzine, Business Unit Partner at The Rise Funds.

Investcorp’s Head of European Private Equity, Gilbert Kamieniecky added: “We are looking forward to beginning this new partnership with OFG together with The Rise Fund, united by our shared commitment to excellence and innovation. Investcorp has a proven track record of helping educational organizations develop and grow and we hope to bring this experience to bear at OFG. OFG performs an important service and with the backing of Investcorp, OFG will be able to do more for those in its care and help address demand for special education services. This collaboration presents an exciting opportunity to leverage our collective expertise and resources to make a significant positive impact on the lives of children, young people, and adults in the UK and around the world.”

The investment is consistent with The Rise Fund and Investcorp’s longstanding focus on driving positive social impact and improved access to quality services across the education and healthcare industries. The quality of OFG’s offering can deliver impact through a variety of pathways, including improving students’ educational and health outcomes, increasing productivity and employment for parents of OFG students, cost savings for the community, and skills development that increases employment and future earnings potential among OFG pupils and graduates. OFG has a proud record of enabling children to reach their full potential with 100% of leavers going on to Employment, Education, or Training versus a national average of 88%.

“This is the start of an exciting new chapter for Outcomes First Group,” said David Leatherbarrow, CEO of Outcomes First Group. “The Rise Fund shares our deep commitment to delivering the highest quality services to Special Education Needs students. I know that our team and our students will benefit tremendously from The Rise Fund’s rigorous impact assessment capabilities, behavioral health expertise, and commitment to operational excellence. We are grateful to Stirling Square for their partnership, putting OFG on strong footing from which we can launch our next phase of growth with The Rise Fund and Investcorp.”

Stirling Square Capital Partners acquired OFG in 2019 with the commitment to creating a network of top Ofsted-rated schools with sector-leading capabilities and consistent delivery of high-quality education.

“We are extremely proud of our achievements with OFG. It was a great pleasure partnering with David, Jean-Luc, and the entire team who have performed exceptionally, establishing OFG as a leader in the sector, expanding access across the UK to top-rated, specialized education,” commented Jonathan Heathcote, Partner at Stirling Square, while Christopher Heine, Principal at Stirling Square, added, “Applying our deep sector expertise in education, and our operational practices, we worked closely with management to strengthen OFG's unique capabilities - institutionalizing governance and quality processes, as well as transforming the Group into a tech-enabled and growing business. We look forward to following Outcomes First’s continued success with The Rise Fund.”

The Rise Fund’s investment in OFG aligns with its global thematic focus on mental health and special education and its commitment to delivering positive outcomes for underserved populations. This commitment has been expressed through other The Rise Fund investments, including PresenceLearning, an online speech and occupational therapy, behavioral and mental health services, and software provider; and Banyan Treatment Centers, a US-based provider of substance use disorder services.

Likewise, Investcorp has a proven track record of investing in the education sector with investments including GL Education, one of the leading providers of educational assessments.

Investcorp Capital plc, provider of capital and capital financing services in the alternative investments space, will underwrite Investcorp’s investment.

Moelis & Company served as financial advisor to The Rise Fund and Investcorp in relation to the transaction. Ropes & Gray and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher served as legal counsel to The Rise Fund and Investcorp respectively. Rothschild served as financial advisor and Milbank and Fried Frank served as legal counsel to Stirling Square. DLA Piper served as legal advisor and Jamieson Corporate Finance as financial advisors to management.

The NFA Group, a portfolio company of Stirling Square Capital Partners (“Stirling Square”), today announces the acquisition of Outcomes First Group (“Outcomes First”).

The NFA Group is a leading provider of specialist childcare services in the United Kingdom. In 2016, the National Fostering Agency completed the acquisition of Acorn Care and Education Limited, adding special educational needs (“SEN”) schooling to its range of services and creating the NFA Group. Today, the NFA Group is pleased to build on that success with the acquisition of Outcomes First.

Outcomes First is recognised as a high-quality provider of education and care services to young people and adults with autism, learning disabilities and other complex educational and care needs. It will add 13 schools across the United Kingdom to the NFA Group’s existing 21 schools.

The acquisition complements the NFA Group’s existing capabilities and geographic reach in the SEN space, enabling the combined group to better serve the needs of vulnerable young people and looked after children and substantially improve their life chances. The combined group will care for and educate nearly 6,500 children, young people and adults across the United Kingdom.

David Leatherbarrow, CEO of the NFA Group stated: “I am delighted to complete the acquisition of Outcomes First and welcome them into the NFA Group family. This acquisition will enhance the NFA Group’s ability to provide an integrated pathway of care supporting children, young people and adults across fostering, education and residential care. It reaffirms and expands our commitment to building incredible futures for vulnerable young people in the United Kingdom.”

Jonathan Heathcote of Stirling Square added: “I am very pleased to welcome Outcomes First to the NFA Group family. The combination of the two businesses creates a leading childcare services group in the United Kingdom providing the highest quality outcomes for the children in its care.”

Stirling Square was advised by Jefferies International Limited (M&A) and Dickson Minto (legal).

Acorn is a leading high quality children’s services provider, offering special needs education (SEN), residential and foster care, for children and young adults with complex needs.

4 August 2016, London – The National Fostering Agency (“NFA”) , a portfolio company of Stirling Square Capital Partners, today announces the acquisition of Acorn Care and Education Limited (“Acorn”) from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Established in 2005, Acorn has built a reputation as a high quality children’s services provider, offering special needs education (SEN), residential and foster care, for children and young adults with complex needs. Acorn builds its care around the unique situation and individual circumstances of each child.

NFA is a leading provider of independent fostering services, helping to support Local Authorities meet their statutory sufficiency duty to provide safe and secure foster homes for those children and young people for whom they have a legal responsibility.

The acquisition will add residential and SEN capabilities to NFA’s existing fostering services, enabling the combined group to offer more ways to improve the life chances for vulnerable and looked after children and young people. While NFA and Acorn will continue to focus on their individual operations, the combined organisation will be responsible for 5.8% of looked after children placements nationally. Acorn’s fostering arm is a good geographic fit for NFA, enabling capacity growth in a somewhat fragmented independent provider sector.

Iain Anderson, Group Chief Executive for NFA said “There are currently over 93,000 looked after children in the United Kingdom of whom 55,400 are with foster families registered with either a Local Authority or an Independent Fostering Provider. Fostering Network, an established charity in the sector, noted in January 2016 there was a national shortfall of 9,070 foster carers.

Support to children’s services is provided by a range of public sector and independent providers and it is essential we ensure the resources needed for the care of looked after children are maintained and readily available. Working with the specialist teams at Acorn will help us provide a broad range of these much needed quality resources for the care, education and future development of vulnerable children.