#Education

Professional Training

LLR has been investing and helping to create value in professional education and training solutions for more than 20 years, including online solutions and data analytics for healthcare, engineering, construction, public safety and other end markets. We continue to seek partnerships with best-in-class training providers that allows employers to improve organizational productivity, manage workforce compliance or increase employee engagement.

Companies and intermediaries working in this space should contact Pete Schwartz to discuss relevant investment opportunities.

As a company grows, challenges naturally arise and the LLR Value Creation Team has been instrumental in supporting us. Beyond the tactical and strategic help, they provided substantial morale boosting and professional development for each MedBridge team member. The people on the VCT are amazing, talented and, frankly, just  great to work with. Kudos to you and the whole team for building this important asset that helps us grow and have an even bigger impact on the lives of more patients and providers.

Justin Kowalchuk, Founder and CEO, MedBridge

See You There?

April 14, 2024
ASU+GSV
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September 19, 2024
ATD24
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February 26, 2024
Training 2024 Conference & Expo
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Why We Continue to Invest in Professional Education & Training

Compelling Drivers of Market Growth

  • Growing focus on employee retention and upskilling benefits.
  • Existence of skills gap and labor shortages across various industries.
  • Increasing compliance requirements at state and federal level.
  • Transition from in-person to online or tech-enabled delivery models.

LLR’s Areas of Focus for Investment

  • End-to-end training platforms that provide not only training content, but value-add capabilities to assess and track employee skills and facilitate and engage learners.
  • Providers of differentiated vertical- or functional area-specific training content that allow employees to gain necessary skills in areas with high growth or need such as healthcare, skilled trades, education, leadership and technology.
  • Core training offerings delivered through tech-forward delivery modalities that allow learners to access training at anytime or anywhere.

23+ Year History of Investing in Training Industry

  • Founded in 1999, LLR is a growth oriented private equity firm investing in high growth, disruptive technology and services companies.
  • Thematic driven approach to partnering with leading solutions in attractive end markets, funding liquidity for early shareholders and accelerating long-term value creation initiatives.
  • Focused on partnership as a flexible capital provider (majority or minority ownership) that rewards and motivates key players with equity.
  • Supported by a broad network of Senior Operating Advisors and industry leaders to provide guidance across the spectrum of training models and technology.

LLRs Investment Criteria for Professional Training

$10M
or more of ARR and a scalable business model
$30 - $150M
of equity capital needed to achieve growth objectives

Leading Growth Acceleration for Two Industry Leaders

 

LLR has invested in and grown two market leaders in the training market, creating value through strategic M&A, executive team build out, go-to-market strategy improvement and product enhancement. In 2011, we partnered with Vector Solutions, a provider of continuing education and professional training and compliance solutions to the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Industrial, and Public Safety markets. Over the course of the investment period, we successfully executed on several areas of growth acceleration and operational improvement:

  • Customer Expansion: Improved account management efforts to drive growth of B2B business after identifying expansion opportunities within additional customer plants and divisions, resulting in an increase of net retention from ~90% to ~100%.
  • Product Enhancement: Refined product packaging and expanded product capabilities with mobile LMS, assessment and facility management tools to provide end-to-end solution to customers in core verticals.
  • Accretive M&A: Completed four tuck-in acquisitions and built a robust M&A pipeline of more than 50 actionable opportunities.

In 2012, LLR saw the opportunity to carve the Care2Learn business out of Vector in order to create a market-leading solution focused in healthcare, and it was acquired by Relias Learning. LLR remained an investor in both businesses, supporting growth and value creation at Relias.

The experiences and learnings during Relias’ time of growth acceleration are now being passed on to other LLR portfolio companies, Ben Johnson, former Chief Product Officer and General Manager at Relias, joined LLR’s Value Creation Team in 2021 as Managing Director, Product Management.

Both companies were exited by LLR in 2014, when Vector Solutions was acquired by Providence Equity Partners and Relias was acquired by Bertelsmann.

Select Industry Investments

LLR invests in the sectors where our investment experience indicates there are attractive business models and market trends supporting strong growth potential. Here are some of our relevant investments in professional training solutions.

Industry GrowthBits

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#Learning & Development
Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Sample Exercise and Insights from LLR Learning & Development
Melissa Pernell / Director, Learning & Development
#Talent
The Relationship Between Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance
Shane McFeely / Lead Researcher

Meet the LLR Team

Zack Sigal

Zack Sigal
Peter Schwartz

Peter Schwartz
Zack Hubbard

Zack Hubbard
Austin Burt

Austin Burt

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References

The information presented herein is intended for an audience of potential LLR portfolio companies and the intermediaries supporting their capital raise processes. Named LLR investments presented herein do not reflect a complete list of LLR investments and are provided for informational purposes only. Certain statements about LLR made by portfolio company executives and other quoted parties herein are intended to illustrate the work of LLR’s Value Creation Team with such portfolio companies or reflect the individual’s perspective on the featured industry sector. Such portfolio companies are controlled by investment vehicles managed by LLR. Quoted parties were not compensated in connection with their participation, although they generally receive compensation and investment opportunities in connection with their portfolio company or Senior Operating Advisor roles, and in certain cases are also owners of portfolio company securities and/or investors in LLR-sponsored vehicles. Such compensation and investments subject participants to potential conflicts of interest in making the statements herein.

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