The Village Academy will expand O2B Kids’ geographic presence in the Florida market
Gainesville, FL (March 27, 2019) – O2B Kids, a leading provider of early education services for children in the Southeast U.S., completed the acquisition of The Village Academy, an early education services business with three facilities in St. Augustine, Florida.
Founded in 1981 by Babette and Curt Weaver, The Village Academy provides early education services such as preschool, afterschool enrichment programs and summer camp. Through its three facilities in the St. Augustine market, The Village Academy serves over 400 children aged 18 months to 11 years old.
The transaction will expand O2B Kids’ geographic presence in Florida, from nine to twelve facilities. O2B Kids will leverage its industry experience to enhance The Village Academy’s current offerings to both parents and students.
“We are very excited for the opportunity to serve the families of The Village Academy,” said Andy Sherrard, CEO of O2B Kids. “It is clear that through its long-tenured success of high-quality services, The Village Academy has built a strong brand reputation. With the help of its great teachers, we plan to continue The Village Academy’s tradition of excellence.”
Dentons US LLP served as legal counsel to O2B Kids. Hinge Brokers acted as exclusive financial advisor to The Village Academy.
About Spire Capital Partners
Spire Capital (https://spirecapital.com/) is an active and experienced private equity firm with an investment focus in small market companies within the technology-enabled business services, media, communications and education sectors. Spire Capital was founded on the principle of partnering with management teams and founders to help effectuate the next stage of growth for their companies. Spire professionals have a broad array of past operating, investing and advisory experiences they leverage to help portfolio companies accelerate growth, guide strategic direction and execute their business plan. Spire Capital is a New York-based investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
About O2B Kids
O2B Kids (http://www.o2bkids.com/) is a leading provider of early education services for children in the Southeast U.S. O2B offers preschool education for children 0 to 5 years old, afterschool enrichment programs for elementary school students, and an unprecedented family membership program for all kids 0 to 13 years old. For one all-inclusive price, O2B provides classes in karate, gymnastics, cheerleading, dance, music, drama, art, science, technology, sports, languages and more. While kids experiment with a rich variety of activities and discover their passions, parents enjoy unrivaled convenience and value. O2B’s magical facilities give a safe neighborhood back to kids and deliver valuable enrichment and character-building opportunities to our future generation. Follow O2B on Twitter (@O2BKids) and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all the latest news and events.
About The Village Academy
Founded in 1981, The Village Academy is an early education service provider with three facilities in St. Augustine, Florida. The Village Academy offers a variety of services including preschool, afterschool enrichment programs and summer camp.
Spire Capital’s investment in ERI Solutions will help support the Company expand its technology solutions, grow its client footprint and create additional innovative service offerings
NEW YORK (January 24, 2019) – Spire Capital (or “Spire”), a leading New York based private equity firm specializing in technology-enabled business services, media, communications and education sectors, today announced an undisclosed investment in ERI Solutions, Inc. (“ERI” or the “Company”). Headquartered in Wichita, KS, ERI is a leading provider of regulatory compliance and business risk solutions. Spire is partnering with Nathan Vander Griend, President & CEO of ERI, who will continue to lead the organization with his management team.
Founded in 2007, ERI provides non-destructive testing, safety, industrial hygiene, environmental and insurance services to over 200 customers across the U.S. ERI’s services, the majority of which are federally mandated, help clients mitigate business risks and maintain compliance with regulations. The Company is utilizing a propriety, cloud-based platform for real-time field service data capture, risk control and compliance management. ERI will use Spire’s financial investment to support its technology platform, expand its customer base and continue innovation.
“My team has done an excellent job working with our clients to provide services to identify and mitigate their business’ risks” said Nathan Vander Griend, President & CEO of ERI. “This partnership with Spire will allow our team to serve our current and new clients with technology solutions that provide transparency into their testing, inspection, certification and compliance data.”
Anthony Cassano, Partner at Spire Capital, commented “Nathan has built ERI into a clear leader in its core market demonstrating his leadership ability, management’s domain expertise and the mission-critical nature of the Company’s service offerings. Spire is excited to partner with Nathan and the entire ERI employee base during ERI’s next phase of growth, which will include expansion in ERI’s core market, extension into targeted adjacent markets and strategic acquisitions.”
Anthony Cassano, Brad Johnson and Sean White will join ERI’s Board of Directors. Spire’s Executive in Residence in the TICC industry, Jim Campbell, will work with the Company as a Board Advisor.
This marks the ninth platform investment in Spire Capital Partners III.
Dentons US LLP served as legal counsel to Spire Capital. Hinkle Law Firm served as legal counsel to ERI Solutions.
The Carolina Networks acquisition will increase Dynamic Quest’s market share in North Carolina, making it a leading provider in the area.
Greensboro, NC (January 7, 2019) – Dynamic Quest, a managed service provider offering IT and cloud services to enterprises and businesses, completed the acquisition of Carolina Networks (“CNI”), a Greensboro, North Carolina based managed service provider.
Founded in 1995, CNI offers managed IT, disaster recovery and hosting services to small and medium sized businesses across a wide variety of verticals. Approximately 60% of CNI’s revenue is recurring with a strong, loyal customer base. CNI President Susan Parrish will join the Dynamic Quest team as Client Engagement Manager.
“We are thrilled to be joining Dynamic Quest. We have always had a lot of respect for Dynamic Quest and believe that our current customers will benefit from leveraging Dynamic Quest’s infrastructure, broader solution set and scale. We are looking forward to this next phase of growth together”, said Susan Parrish.
The transaction will enhance Dynamic Quest’s market share in North Carolina and provide the ability to cross-sell some services to CNI’s customer base that are not currently offered. Dynamic Quest will look to leverage its infrastructure including its data center, Philippines remote delivery team and sales and marketing initiatives to enhance service solutions for end clients and accelerate growth.
Javier Gomez, CEO of Dynamic Quest relayed, “We are extremely excited about this new merging of Carolina Networks into our Dynamic Quest family. Carolina Networks has grown over the years to have a very solid client base and an even stronger reputation of being a customer focused and dependable team to support IT needs. We are very fortunate to have the Carolina Networks’ team join our growing family.”
About Dynamic Quest
Founded in 2000, Dynamic Quest is a managed service provider for IT services to enterprises and mid-sized businesses. Dynamic Quest offers a broad set of services including hosted cloud services, disaster recovery, managed IT, service plans, application support, virtual CIO and security services. The Company’s headquarters is in Greensboro, North Carolina and houses a data center facility that was built in 2007. Dynamic Quest currently has satellite offices in Winston-Salem and Cary, North Carolina, Marietta, Georgia and Clark, Philippines. For more information, visit https://dynamicquest.com/.
About Carolina Networks
Founded in 1995 and based in Greensboro, North Carolina, Carolina Networks is a managed service provider for IT services to small to medium sized businesses. For more information about CNI, visit the company website http://cnetnc.com/.