What Acceleration Academies does
Acceleration Academies (“AA”) partners with public school districts to support students who face challenges that prevent them from succeeding in conventional school environments.
AA offers a combination of in-person and online teaching designed to meet the needs of students who cannot attend school five days a week on a fixed schedule. By enrolling students, AA’s revenue-sharing model also enables school districts to avoid losing funding.
Why we invested
- AA is a leader in re-engagement education, a part of the market that is underdeveloped but growing, with consistent demand driven by public policy and social need.
- AA has long-term contracts with school districts that have been renewed many times, showing that its services are valued.
- The investment came at a key moment in AA’s growth trajectory, with clear opportunities to expand and improve.
- Excolere Equity Partners’ leadership team has a strong track record of successful private equity investments in the education sector, and excellent relationships with key decision-makers (e.g. school superintendents and boards).
Value creation
- Merging with EdIncites and integrating their digital tools for teaching and learning to offer more personalised and effective education.
- Expanding reach to US school districts with large numbers of students who need alternative education options.
- Actively connecting with school districts to explain the benefits of AA’s model and encourage them to sign up to the partnership.
- Creating better outcomes by helping students graduate and continue on to further education or careers.
What IK Partners does
IK Partners (“IK”) is a European private equity firm that typically invests in companies based in Northern and Western Europe. IK has four investment strategies: mid-cap (valuations between €200m and €1bn), small-cap (sub-€200m valuations), development capital (valuations up to €50m) and partnership (minority stakes in larger companies to support specific growth plans).
Pantheon International invested in two funds – IK Small Cap IV and IK Development Capital II – which focus on smaller, often family-owned or founder-led businesses which require support to grow, expand internationally, or improve operations.
Why we invested
- Previous funds have delivered strong returns, with many companies growing significantly in size and value during IK’s ownership.
- Funds are managed by dedicated teams with deep knowledge of the sectors that they invest in, supported by specialists in operations, finance, and sustainability.
- IK focuses on stable sectors with good long-term growth prospects, e.g. healthcare, business services, consumer goods and industrials.
- Regional offices help IK to build relationships with business owners and find investment opportunities that may not be available to other firms.
Value creation
- Making operational improvements to help companies become more efficient, improve products and services, and expand into new markets.
- Acquiring smaller businesses in the same industry to generate faster growth and boost market position.
- Supporting a range of business sizes and needs, with investors’ money split 70/30 between small cap and development capital strategy.
- Integrating ESG into the investment process to both manage risk and increase value.
About the company
Founded in 2004, IPD Dental Group (or “IPD Dental”) is a Spanish-based producer and distributor of compatible prosthetic abutments for dental implants and related components.
IPD operates in over 30 countries, serving as a reference brand for dentists and laboratories across Europe and beyond. The company’s mission is to innovate and provide precise, advanced prosthetic solutions that meet the highest standards of dental implant restoration.
Investment rationale
- ProA Capital has been invested in the company since 2019 and, being familiar with the asset, it saw an opportunity to continue supporting the company’s growth trajectory.
- IPD Dental is a market leader in the European markets, particularly Spain, for compatible prosthetic abutments. Its strong market position and brand recognition made it an attractive investment opportunity.
- ProA Capital identified significant growth potential in IPD Dental’s business model. The private equity manager saw opportunities to expand the company’s product offerings, enhance its technological capabilities and enter new markets.
- IPD Dental’s commitment to innovation and high-quality products aligned with ProA Capital’s investment strategy. The company’s focus on providing advanced, easy-to-use prosthetic solutions was seen as a key driver of future growth.
Our relationship
Pantheon has an established relationship with ProA Capital and is currently invested alongside the private equity manager in a manager-led secondary opportunity.
Active management and value creation
- The company is expected to continue experiencing strong financial performance by growing its digital offering and expanding its product portfolio to include a wider range of dental abutments and related components. This expansion will allow the company to better meet the needs of its customers and increase its market share.
- Investments in technology will further enhance IPD Dental’s manufacturing processes and product quality. The company will continue to integrate advanced digital solutions to improve workflow efficiency and product precision. This is expected to increase production fivefold.
- IPD Dental will continue with its successful buy-and-build track record. It will further expand its presence in international markets, via organic growth and acquisitions. Recently, it has made acquisitions in Germany, Italy and Spain. This has increased its customer base and geographic reach, with operations in over 50 countries. The company’s strong reputation and high-quality products will facilitate its entry into new markets.
- ProA Capital will continue to work closely with IPD Dental’s management team to implement operational improvements. These efforts have resulted in increased efficiency, reduced costs and improved overall performance.
About the company
Tacala is the largest franchise operator of Taco Bell restaurants in the USA.
Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Alabama, Tacala operates over 360 Taco Bell locations across several Southeastern states, including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina.
The company is known for its commitment to customer service, community engagement, and operational excellence, which has earned it recognition and awards within the Taco Bell franchise system.
Investment rationale
- Altamont Capital Partners (“ACP”) first invested in Tacala in 2012 and therefore is very familiar with the company and has held it through multiple funds for over a decade.
- Tacala’s position as the largest Taco Bell franchise in the USA made it an attractive investment. The company’s extensive network of locations and strong operational performance provided a solid foundation for growth.
- Pantheon recognised significant growth potential in Tacala’s business model and saw the opportunities to expand Tacala’s footprint through new unit development, same-store sales growth and strategic acquisitions.
- The investment aligned well with ACP’s focus on partnering with leading management teams to help middle-market businesses reach their full potential. Tacala’s experienced management team and strong track record of success made it a suitable partner for ACP.
- Tacala’s commitment to operational excellence and customer satisfaction resonated with ACP’s investment philosophy. The private equity manager’s experience in multi-unit consumer businesses positioned it well to support Tacala’s continued growth.
Our relationship
Pantheon has an established relationship with Altamont Capital Partners, having invested in primary funds, multiple co-investment opportunities and currently alongside the private equity manager in a manager-led secondary. In addition, Pantheon holds Limited Partner Advisory Committee (LPAC) seats in all of ACP’s primary funds I to IV.
Active management and value creation
- Tacala has more than doubled the number of restaurants from 160 to over 360 locations. This growth has been achieved through a combination of new unit development and strategic acquisitions.
- Tacala has more than quadrupled its earnings since ACP’s initial investment. This growth has been driven by increased sales, improved operational efficiencies and strategic expansion.
- In 2023, ACP and Tacala management formed a sister company to operate as a franchisee within the 7 Brew “drive-thru” coffee system. This diversification has provided additional growth opportunities and expanded Tacala’s business portfolio.
- Tacala has continued to model its “Here to Serve” principle, contributing over USD $4m annually to local communities through various charitable initiatives. This commitment to community engagement has strengthened Tacala’s brand and customer loyalty.
- Tacala has received numerous awards for its operational excellence, including the prestigious Glen Bell Award, which is given to Taco Bell franchisees that best demonstrate the brand’s values and high achievement in store operations.
About the company
Founded in 2003, Altor Equity Partners (“Altor”) is a mid-market private equity firm based in Europe that seeks to scale and optimise companies with world-class potential through fundamental business improvements and earnings growth.
The consideration of sustainability is one of many factors that form part of Altor’s investment approach. Beyond mitigating sustainability risks as part of its investment process, Altor has implemented a framework of comprehensive sustainability performance monitoring of its portfolio companies.
It is a signatory to the Science Based Targets initiative (“SBTi”) and it is supporting its portfolio companies to develop science-based targets and implement decarbonisation pathways. Altor’s ambition is to make every Altor-backed company a sustainability leader in its respective industry.
PIP has backed Altor since 2003 and, in March 2024, made a commitment to Altor’s ACT I, which is a fund focused on investment opportunities that have a specific green transition or industrial decarbonisation theme. In Europe, there is a significant and growing push to decarbonise supply chains in order to meet the European Union’s target to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
As a result, Altor believes that many businesses are seeking to secure compliant, more sustainable supply chains to achieve their own targets, and this push is leading to an increase in businesses that can help to deliver sustainable supply chains at significant scale within the next five to 10 years.
Altor’s ACT I aims to primarily invest in companies across a range of sectors where the green transition is central to their business models, and will include businesses that either have existing green transition value chains or businesses that are developing newer but proven industrial processes to directly deliver green end-solutions.
Altor has already identified a long list of attractive targets within a range of investment themes.
About the company
Yellow Hive is a leading Dutch insurance distribution platform with active broker and managing general agent (“MGA”) capabilities. The company, which serves both small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers, is a financial services intermediary for property and casualty insurances, employee benefits, risk assessment and mortgages.
The business is headquartered in the Netherlands and has more than 500 employees.
Investment rationale
- Yellow Hive had a high-quality platform displaying robust historical organic growth supplemented by proven buy-and-build capabilities.
- Resilient business model with expansion into higher margin MGA/niche sectors, which will drive cross-selling opportunities with the potential for significant synergies and economies of scale.
- Fragmented and growing underlying market provides an attractive buy-and-build opportunity.
- A strong alignment with a core, high-quality private equity manager.
Our relationship
Pantheon is an existing primary investor in IK Partners’ (“IK”) Small Cap Fund II and has been an active investor with the private equity manager since 2000, having invested in several of their mid-cap funds on a primary basis and completed eight co-investments.
Active management and value creation
- IK acquired Yellow Hive in 2020 and has since grown revenue and EBITDA by 5.5 and 6.0 times respectively.
- Mergers & Acquisitions are in the DNA of the company. All the business segments are supported by a shared services centre, which enables the business to seamlessly integrate new businesses to the platform, driving efficiency and generating synergies. Furthermore, the company has a good track record of transferring its portfolio of policies into its own MGA channel, and therefore further synergies are anticipated.
- Yellow Hive has the long-term goal of replicating the platform that it has today on a pan-European scale. The company, assisted by IK, has built a pipeline of targets into its plan and aims to execute on this to grow business earnings.
About the company
Syneos Health is a leading provider of outsourced clinical research and commercialisation services to pharmaceutical and biotech customers. The company serves the 25 largest pharmaceutical companies and many of the most innovative biotech companies in the world.
Investment rationale
- Large player in a fragmented space: Syneos is currently the fourth largest Contract Research Organisation (CRO) and second largest Clinical Commercialisation Organisation (CCO) in a market worth more than US$40bn, giving the company preferred access to large complex biopharma projects across blue-chip healthcare customers.
- Strong value proposition: Given the significant costs and time associated with producing a new drug and bringing it to market, the cost of failure (or delays) is very high for customers, leading to high switching costs, low price sensitivity, and high barriers to entry.
- Exposure to high-growth therapeutic segments: Strong organic revenue growth profile and backlog coverage due to focus on high-growth subsegments such as Cardiovascular, Cell & Gene Therapy, Neuroscience, Oncology, etc., which are projected to grow at > 10% cumulative annual growth rate over the next five years.
- Syneos Health was formed via the merger of two high-growth pharmaceutical services businesses (INC Research & inVentiv Health). Upon consolidation, Syneos focused primarily on revenue growth, which resulted in strong bookings year-on-year. However, the company lacked effective cost and inventory control measures to deliver its contracted backlog in a timely manner, leaving significant integration and margin improvement opportunity for a new investor.
Our relationship
Founded in New York in 1992, Veritas Capital (“Veritas”) invests in companies providing primarliy critical technology-enabled products and services to government and commercial customers worldwide.
Pantheon has a long-standing relationship with Veritas, and PIP has invested in two of the manager’s funds on a primary basis. PIP is also co-invested alongside Veritas in Perspecta, a provider of services and solutions to US government agencies.
Active management and value creation
The manager sees a number of routes to create value for the business through bolstering the management team, expanding into adjacent markets and deepening the penetration of high-margin services. Veritas also intends to invest in Syneos’ leadership functions (Chief Operating Officer) to help drive effective operational improvements and complement the recent growth experienced by the company.
About the company
Qualtrics, the leader and creator of “experience management” software, is a cloud-native software provider that helps organisations quickly identify and resolve points of friction across all digital and human touchpoints in their business. These insights allow businesses to retain their best customers and employees, protect their revenue, and drive profitability. More than 19,000 organisations around the world use Qualtrics’ advanced Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) platform to improve business performance. Qualtrics houses one of the largest databases of human survey responses in the world. Qualtrics is co-headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle and operates out of 28 offices globally.
Investment rationale
- Qualtrics’ technology is central to how businesses make mission-critical customer and employee decisions which increase revenue and operational efficiency. With an AI-powered platform and built-in automation, companies can deliver exceptional experiences to their customers and employees, at scale.
- The business is led by a strong and experienced management team.
- Qualtrics is recognised as a leader in experience management which is a rapidly growing market.
- Qualtrics has a strong customer base, including well-known brands like Uber, Coca-Cola and Pfizer.
Our relationship
Founded in 1983, Accel is a venture capital firm, based in Palo Alto in the USA, which is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build world-class technology-focused companies. Given its global investment mandate, Accel also has offices in other technology hubs such as Bangalore and London. Pantheon has a long-standing relationship with Accel, including active participation as an advisory board member. PIP is currently invested in three Accel funds on a primary basis.
Active management and value creation
Accel led the Series A financing round for Qualtrics in 2012. Subsequently, Accel invested substantial follow-on capital across its platform and has advised the company on initiatives such as product development, new customer acquisition, network introductions, and talent management. Accel’s partnership as an active board member and investor helped enable a sale to SAP and ultimately an initial public offering in January 2021, at a valuation of US$15.1bn.
In 2023, Accel identified Qualtrics as a compelling investment opportunity due to a dislocation in the public stock price. Accel partnered with Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPPIB”) to purchase the business for approximately US$12.5bn. Accel’s intimate knowledge of the business and ongoing close relationship with the management team makes it a preferred partner to help Qualtrics maintain its market-leading position and continue product innovation.
About the company
Apex Service Partners (“Apex”) is a provider of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning), plumbing and electrical services. Founded in 2019, the business operates across the USA and has over 8,000 employees.
Investment rationale
- Apex operates in a sector that has proven to be resilient through economic cycles as it provides mission-critical services that often cannot be delayed.
- The HVAC market is growing strongly and is benefitting from an increasing number of households, ageing housing stock, increasing energy efficiency requirements and more extreme weather patterns.
- Apex operates in a highly fragmented market that the manager believes is ripe for consolidation. The vast majority of competitors are smaller, independent providers that lack the scale required to grow in this market.
Our relationship
Alpine Investors (“Alpine”) is a top-performing, US-based private equity manager that focuses on the mid-market. PIP has previously invested alongside Alpine in TEAM Services Group, which was a manager-led secondary transaction.
Active management and value creation
Alpine first invested in Apex in 2019 and has grown the company significantly through M&A during the first phase of its ownership. Apex’s internal M&A team has developed a successful M&A playbook that provides acquired businesses with a significant uplift to EBITDA one year after acquisition. The M&A strategy is likely to result in accretive acquisitions, which is expected to drive value over the course of Alpine’s next phase of ownership.
About the company
Medica is a provider of teleradiology services with operations in the UK, Ireland and the USA. The company provides outsourced reporting of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), ultrasound and X-ray images to customers including NHS trusts, the Irish Health Service Executive, private hospitals and insurance groups.
Founded in 2004, Medica has grown substantially to become a high-quality business with a reputation for reliable services and excellent teleradiology reporting, which has resulted in strong customer advocacy.
Investment rationale
- There are significant structural tailwinds in the teleradiology industry. Strong demand for teleradiology services has created a backlog, while the industry is suffering from a shortage of radiologists.
- Medica benefits from high barriers to entry as it is difficult for new entrants into the market to recreate Medica’s extensive network of radiology specialists and doctors. As a result, Medica has a “sticky” customer base.
- The business has an attractive financial profile with healthy margins and strong cash flow generation.
- The recent acquisitions in Ireland and the USA have expanded Medica’s geographic footprint and diversified its services.
Our relationship
Pantheon has a long-standing relationship with IK Investment Partners (“IK”) dating back to 2000, and holds six advisory board seats with the manager. PIP is currently invested in three IK funds on a primary basis. PIP is also a co-investor alongside IK in Salad Signature, a manufacturer of salad spreads.
Active management and value creation
IK has a track record of creating value in the healthcare sector having invested in 23 healthcare companies across Europe since inception, deploying a total of €2.1bn.
The manager views M&A as a key tool to continue Medica’s growth trajectory with further investment expected to increase the size and speed of its buy-and-build strategy. Organically, the manager sees value creation opportunities through the delivery of scale and deeper penetration of both new and existing telemedicine services, in new and existing geographies.
Additionally, the manager plans to leverage artificial intelligence to improve Medica’s workflow, minimise their customers’ backlog and ultimately enhance patients’ medical journey and outcome.