ICS Learn Generates 100% Return on Investment

Edinburgh-based VC firm Par Equity and entrepreneur Angus MacDonald earned 100% return on their initial investment in ICS Learn.

22:17 21 May 2018

Angus MacDonald and Edinburgh-based VC firm Par Equity received £30million return of investment in ICS Learn, a Glasgow-based online education specialist, following a management buy-out.

 

The new owners of ICS Learn said that their goal is to double their international sales as they exploit the scalability of their online courses. One of the new owners, Colin Kennedy, said: “The market is hot for education businesses that have positioned themselves to scale quite rapidly to take advantage of increase in demand for educational courses.

 

“In areas such the Middle East and Asia Pacific, UK education has strong kudos, and our courses are well sought out there in these key international markets.

 

“Currently our overseas sales are about 11 per cent of the business but we would like to double that. This is possible because our courses are so much more portable than they used to be due to our all-online strategy, so a student in Dubai gets exactly the same experience as a student in the UK. They will both get all the same online context, and the same unlimited access to tutors.”

 

Angus MacDonald said: “When we came across it, ICS Learn had a venerable history, but it was still a paper-based distanced learning so revenue was declining fast.

 

Making it completely online, investing properly in the quality of the education and securing high examination pass rates was essential. In addition focusing it back from a huge range of mainly consumer (B2C) courses towards professional courses (B2B) was key.”

 

“The investors have already made 100 times their investment, the stockmarket is high, the M&A market is boiling so it seemed sensible to consider selling. Actually I think the business has a long way to go.”