Houlihan Lokey Advises Empowering Learning Group

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Empowering Learning Group (ELG), a provider of mission-critical services to schools and a portfolio company of Graphite Capital (Graphite), has sold a majority stake to THI Investments (THI). The transaction closed on 1 July 2025.

Founded in 2017, Graphite backed ELG as a startup, with the aim of building a diversified and tech-enabled education service provider. From the outset, ELG’s mission was to solve challenges facing schools, in particular behavioural issues in classrooms, which have intensified in recent years, driven by post-pandemic disruption, social media, and growing mental health concerns amid pupils. This has reduced teaching time and increased staff attrition, which ELG is addressing with high-quality behavioural management training courses and recruitment support, significantly improving the learning environment and the welfare and academic outcomes of children. Under Graphite’s ownership, ELG has grown to generate £60 million of revenue in 2024, driven by the expansion of both its training and staffing services in the U.K. and internationally.

Graphite is a private equity investor in middle-market companies in the U.K. The firm focuses on management buyouts and also invests in development capital opportunities, backing companies with enterprise values of £30 million to £175 million. Graphite’s current £500 million fund is Graphite Capital Partners IX.

THI is a European family-owned private equity investor with total assets under management of more than €2 billion. The firm provides patient capital, operational understanding, and support to middle-market companies from its offices in London, Munich, and Stuttgart. THI partners with exceptional management teams to help them scale and grow their organisations, with education and training being one of its core sectors of expertise.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to ELG shareholders and Graphite. This transaction exemplifies Houlihan Lokey’s market-leading position in the global education and training sector, including the school software and services market, where selected transactions include the sales of CPOMS to Raptor Technologies, itslearning to Sanoma Learning, Vision for Education to LDC, and Impero Holdings to Investcorp, together with the investment in Twinkl by Vitruvian Partners, as well as the acquisitions of Tute Education by Outcomes First Group, and the investment in The Key by CBPE. The transaction also demonstrates our continued strength in the primary and secondary schools sector, where selected transactions include the sales of Copperfield Education and Minerva Education to Dukes Education; the investment in Thomas’s London Day Schools by Oakley Capital; the acquisitions of Forfar Education by Mubadala Capital, a portfolio of schools from Chatsworth Schools by Outcomes First Group; and the investment in Inspired Education by TA Associates.*

*Selected transactions were executed by Houlihan Lokey professionals while at other firms acquired by Houlihan Lokey or by professionals from a Houlihan Lokey joint venture company.

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