Oakley Capital has raised a continuation fund to acquire IU Group, a German university and specialist in education technology, alongside Oakley Capital Fund V, from Oakley Capital Fund III.Â
Oakley Capital (Oakley) has raised a continuation fund to acquire IU Group (IU), a German university and specialist in education technology, alongside Oakley Capital Fund V, from Oakley Capital Fund III.
The fund is backed by investors including TPG GP Solutions, HarbourVest Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Glendower Capital and Pantheon.
IU has performed significantly ahead of its original investment case and Fund III will realise a gross return of 85% IRR on its exit subject to completion.
Oakley first acquired IU Group back in 2017. The company provides flexible and affordable online learning to adults and high school leavers, and was an early adopter of artificial intelligence, successfully leveraging AI tools including early ‘natural language processing’ to scale its offering. IU has the highest form of state accreditation in Germany and recently added separate U.K. and Canadian accreditations to its portfolio.
