Hispania Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm headquartered in Chicago, has acquired an interest in Language Stars, a provider of language instruction to the pre-school and elementary school market.
Founded in 1998 by chief executive officer Leslie Lancry, Language Stars delivers programmes in Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, German and Italian.
The company currently operates seven foreign language centres, eight satellite locations, and approximately 100 at-school programmes in the Chicago area, educating over 5,000 students each week.
The acquisition of Language Stars marks the first investment in Hispania Capital Partners’ newest fund and its first investment in the educational services sector.
"We are very excited to partner with Language Stars’ management team, including Lancry, chief operating officer Ken Frystak, and chief education officer Karen Gould, to replicate the company’s success in the Chicago market," says Victor Maruri, managing partner of Hispania Capital Partners. "We believe that Language Stars represents a strong, scalable platform in an important area of early-childhood education."
Hispania’s investment was used to buyout non-management shareholders, provide growth capital for the company’s 2010 market launch into the Washington DC metropolitan area and fund future growth into new markets.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
