PORTFOLIO — EDUCATION

Leep Group

Leep Group is a skills and training provider focused on pre-employment and employability training, skills bootcamps and apprenticeships. The business delivers a clear social impact by helping people return to work and gain new skills across digital, AI and renewable trade skills.

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Key Facts

Initial investment: 22/10/2020

Sector – Education

Fund — Impact Fund I

Status — Current

Investment Highlights

  • Completed four acquisitions, each adding new scale and services to the business.
  • Introduced a chairperson with a strong industry background.
  • Strengthened the team with the recruitment of an experienced Finance Director, Chief Customer Officer, IT Director and a Head of HR.
  • Creation of a shared service centre including finance, HR, IT and quality.
  • Grown the impact of the business with a significant increase in learner numbers whilst maintaining the focus on quality and learner outcomes.
  • Supported the rebrand to Leep Group, to better reflect the expansion of the group beyond its heritage in employability training to deliver Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and the expansion of its specialist training expertise in digital, AI and renewable trade skills.

Partnership Motivation

Leep is an excellent business delivering a clear social impact by helping people return to work, gain new skills and make meaningful career progression. We were impressed with Luke and his dynamic team and are excited to build on the company’s recent growth and support the continued focus on employment outcomes and career progression.

Leep is a compelling investment for the Impact Fund with a highly relevant proposition as the UK adjusts to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which, will inevitably create new requirements for retraining and upskilling.

With further devolution of adult education budgets on the horizon, we also see strong potential for further organic growth across all parts of the business. Given the scale of the opportunity in the training sector and our track record in buy and build, we are also keen to consider potential acquisition opportunities.

Luke Muscat, Co-Founder & Managing Director at Leep

After graduating, Luke thought about a career in finance, but decided instead to launch Leep with a family friend, as they saw an opportunity for a skills and training company that would work closely with employers to help them fill vacancies with good quality candidates.

The business has grown steadily over the last 15 years, and Luke and the Leep team have a clear organic growth plan based on winning more contracts and geographical expansion.

“We are really pleased to be working with Palatine on this next chapter for Leep. We first met the team around two years ago, before we were ready for investment, and we’ve stayed in touch informally, a couple of times a year, since then.

I believe they will be an excellent partner for us – they have a strong track record of working with entrepreneurial businesses like ours and creating value over the long term. There is a really strong sense of shared values with the Impact Fund team alongside Palatine’s commitment to ESG across their business.”

Luke Muscat
Co-Founder & Managing Director – Leep

Investment Team