Houlihan Lokey Advises The Key Group

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that The Key Group, a provider of market-leading education software (including Arbor and The Key) and a portfolio company of CBPE, has sold a majority stake to Permira. The transaction was signed on 9 November 2025.

The Key Group is home to seven leading products for schools: Arbor, SAMpeople, TimeTabler, Habitude, The Key, GovernorHub, and Robin. Together, The Key Group’s products have helped more than 20,000 schools move away from legacy systems, paper-based processes, and reactive governance to entirely new ways of working—focused on saving staff at all levels significant time and effort.

The Key Group intends to invest further into helping schools tackle ongoing workload challenges, shrinking budgets, and staff retention. Working with Permira will enable the group to double investment in R&D over the next few years, with a clear focus on using AI to save staff time and improve student insight. The Key Group will also remain committed to being the best home for U.K. edtech founders looking to grow their impact in schools.

Chris Kenyon, CEO of The Key Group, said, “We are incredibly excited to welcome Permira to The Key Group. Their decision to back us is a powerful validation of our mission and our approach. They believe in our mission to transform schools and bring deep expertise in product innovation alongside a proven track record of helping similar organisations scale their impact. We know they will be an invaluable partner as we accelerate our plans to continue providing outstanding value and indispensable support to schools across the U.K. I also want to take this opportunity to say thank you to CBPE for being such a mission-aligned partner over the last five years.”

James Weatherill, Co-Founder and CEO of Arbor, said, “Our mission to transform the way schools work for the better has never been more important. Schools are under huge pressure to do more with less, staff are overwhelmed with admin and high workloads, and AI is completely changing the way students learn. We are at the forefront of ensuring this transformation is beneficial, and I am incredibly excited about partnering with Permira on the next stage of our journey. Together, we can do so much more, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Jason Khaksar, Partner at CBPE, said, “It has been wonderful to work with Chris, James and the rest of The Key Group team over the last five years. Through their efforts, the business has been transformed during that period. Their drive to improve outcomes for the school sector is inspiring, and we wish them every success on the next stage of their journey.”

Michail Zekkos, Partner and Co-Head of Technology, and Pierre Pozzo, Partner at Permira, said, “The Key Group’s mission to serve schools across the U.K. and make a meaningful difference to the way they operate through technology highly overlaps with the core tenets of our culture. Alongside Chris, James and the management team, we look forward to serving this mission, investing behind the company’s product leadership, deepening its AI capabilities, and providing schools with the technology they need to deliver measurable outcomes for students as the education sector continues to evolve.”

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to The Key Group shareholders and CBPE. This transaction exemplifies Houlihan Lokey’s market-leading position in the global education technology and services sector, where selected transactions include the investment in Twinkl by Vitruvian Partners, together with the sales of CPOMS to Raptor Technologies,* Empowering Learning Group to THI Investments, itslearning to Sanoma Learning, Vision for Education to LDC, Judicium Education to Supporting Education Group, and Impero Holdings to Investcorp, as well as the acquisitions of MatchWare by Everway and Tute Education by Outcomes First Group. The transaction also demonstrates Houlihan Lokey’s continued strength in the primary and secondary schools sector, where selected transactions include the investment in Thomas’s London Day Schools by Oakley Capital and Inspired Education by TA Associates,* the acquisition of Forfar Education by Mubadala Capital, and the acquisition of portfolios of schools from both Cognita and Chatsworth Schools by Outcomes First Group.*

This transaction follows Houlihan Lokey’s role as financial advisor to CBPE in a primary buyout of The Key in 2020, which helped fund the strategic investment into Arbor.

*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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