31 January 2025
Advent is pleased to announce the sale of Compass Education, a leading provider of Student Information System (SIS) software, to EQT, a global investment organisation.
This transaction marks an exciting new chapter for Compass as it continues its mission to improve school operations and student outcomes around the world, now with the support of EQT.
When Advent invested in Compass in 2018, the vision was to scale the business from a strong domestic player into a global EdTech leader. Partnering with co-founders John de la Motte and Lucas Filer, Advent supported the evolution of Compass into a high-performing SaaS platform, now serving over 3,000 schools across Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Over the investment period, Compass more than tripled its annual recurring revenue, expanded into international markets, and launched a suite of new high-value product modules, including analytics and timetabling. The company also established an integrated payments platform and executed three strategic acquisitions to strengthen its geographic and product reach.
The sale to EQT follows a period of significant value creation and operational transformation, resulting in a strong outcome for Advent Partners 2 investors. Advisors to Advent on the transaction included Herbert Smith Freehills, L.E.K. Consulting, KPMG, EY, RBC.
John de la Motte, founder and CEO of Compass, stated “Advent has played a supportive role as Compass has expanded in our domestic and international markets. Their contributions in areas like strategy, finance and governance has allowed us to broaden our reach and improve our offering to schools while ensuring we have the right team and corporate structures and processes going forward. We’re thankful for their partnership and excited to continue to develop the business with EQT.”
For any further information, please contact Rob Hooke, Robert Radcliffe-Smith, or Hesh Dantanarayana on +61 3 9690 9566.
