Houlihan Lokey Advises karriere tutor

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Trill Impact has acquired a majority stake in the leading digital training company Karriere Tutor in order to further expand the company’s digital education offering alongside its founder, Oliver Herbig. The transaction closed on 5 May 2022.

karriere tutor was launched by Oliver Herbig in 2015 and has developed into the leading digital provider of state-subsidised professional training in Germany. Today, karriere tutor employs around 150 people and offers 800 certified online courses with professional development content.

Trill Impact closed its €900 million middle-market impact buyout fund in Q3 2021, making it one of the largest first-time funds raised during the COVID-19 pandemic by an independent private investment firm. karriere tutor is the fifth platform investment and the 14th private equity transaction made by the fund. Earlier fund investments include Nordomatic (system integrator for building automation and energy efficiency in buildings), ILT (EdTech provider for schools), Meona and iSolutions (merged into clinical software group, Mesalvo), and ID North and Arctic Group (merged into the cybersecurity platform, European ID Security). The fund invests to support and develop midsized companies in Northern Europe that address social and environmental challenges in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

karriere tutor’s courses focus on what Trill Impact believes are essential skills required in the 21st century labour market, particularly digitalisation and Industry 4.0. In Germany’s current labour market, which is characterised by a shortage of skilled workers and continuous changes in professional profiles, karriere tutor provides graduates a good opportunity to strengthen their positions and specialise their skillsets. With a combination of digital courses, individual online support, and intensive career counselling, the company has already trained 15,000 graduates, supporting their reintegration into skilled jobs, which correlates with Trill Impact’s view that access to education is the basis for social cohesion. karriere tutor has also recently started offering digital courses to improve the integration of refugees in Germany.

Together with Oliver Herbig and karriere tutor’s experienced management team and motivated workforce, Trill Impact plans to further expand the digital course offering for government-funded professional training. In Trill Impact’s view, another strategic pillar of the company is to improve training accessibility, thereby making the courses accessible to even more graduates. Trill Impact will actively support further professionalisation of the organisation, including increasing brand awareness among prospective graduates, and intends to expand digital sales and marketing expertise and ramping up automatisation of business processes. Oliver Herbig will maintain a significant shareholding and continue in his position alongside his Co-CEO, Thomas Rekittke.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to the shareholders of karriere tutor and assisted the management, founders, and shareholders throughout the transaction, including marketing document and business plan preparation, due diligence process coordination, and transaction negotiations.