Sandberg Capital, Bakaláři And Twigsee founded Educleus
A New Educational Holding Aimed at Supporting Digitization And Innovation In Education
PRAGUE/BRATISLAVA (20/04/2023) Slovak private equity company Sandberg Capital, in cooperation with the creators of the most-used school software in the Czech Republic Bakaláři and the authors of the application for kindergartens Twigsee, has established a new holding group called Educleus. The aim of this newly established group is to provide digital support for kindergartens and schools in the Czech Republic.
Educleus offers modern solutions for the digital transformation of educational institutions, enabling their transition from traditional classical forms of education and communication with parents to innovative, digital forms.
“For Sandberg, education has been one of the key topics since the fund’s inception. In addition to Bakaláři, since 2017 our portfolio includes Cambridge International School and several kindergartens Funiversity. The creation of Educleus is yet another important step in fulfilling our long-term vision of supporting modern education in the Central European region,”says František Paller, Investment Manager responsible for education at Sandberg Capital.
Twigsee founder Vanda Seidelová was appointed the Group CEO. As Paller explains, this is not a merger of entities. Bakaláři and Twigsee will operate in parallel as two sister companies under the new Educleus holding, which is 75% owned by Sandberg Capital.
“I am glad that the representatives of Bakaláři and Sandberg are well-aware of the huge potential that the partnership of our companies can bring to customers and that I have been given the confidence to manage this group. Although this is not a merger of entities, we are now starting to form one joint organizational team. We can mutually benefit from experience, partnership and sharing of know-how, all in order to bring even more interesting products and services that solve the everyday problems of our users, i.e. teachers, headteachers, parents, pupils, but also founders and other parties operating in the field of education. The world in the digital age is literally changing under our hands, and many industries find it difficult to keep up. We believe that our connection can bring innovation to the world of education, because after all, our children are the ones who will lead this country in 10-20 years, and we want to help them prepare. Sandberg has long supported innovative projects, so we are very much looking forward to seeing what innovations we will be able to bring soon,” added Vanda Seidelová, founder of Twigsee and new CEO of Educleus.
“We have been working with Sandberg for 8 years and we know that this has brought us tremendous growth. It also helped us to consolidate the Czech market in the field of school information systems. After this new partnership, we have managed to expand the portfolio of our clients, from the youngest preschool children to high school graduates. This has further strengthened our position as the leader on the Czech market. Together we want to go beyond information systems and become trusted partners for other needs that can be addressed in the field of education,” concludes Antonín Blatný, founder of Bakaláři Software.
About Sandberg Capital
Sandberg Capital is a Slovak private equity firm established in 2014. It focuses on investing in small and medium-sized companies in Slovakia and the CEE region. In its first fund, it manages assets worth more than €210 million, invested in IT, telecommunications, agriculture, education, and retail. In December 2021, Sandberg closed its second investment fund with a committed capital of €130 million, managed on behalf of institutional investors, including one of Europe’s largest investors – the European Investment Fund.
Bachelors
Bakaláři Software was founded in 2005. However, the foundations of the group were laid already in 1989 from an initially informal group of programmers who wanted to jointly automate and simplify specific administrative tasks that troubled teachers and school principals. The company currently runs 4 softwares under different brands and manages nearly 5,000 schools. It is also an important partner of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic, the Czech School Inspection and other relevant players in the field of Czech education.
Twigsee
Twigsee was created in 2019 as a modern communication application connecting parents with their teachers. Since 2020, it has expanded its functionalities with legislative duties and is currently able to handle almost 90% of all pre-school administration. The system is currently used by more than 700 schools in the Czech Republic, dozens in Slovakia and 10 other countries around the world. The priority is innovation, elimination of duplicative work, user-friendliness and saving time, money, energy and nerves for all users of the system.
20. 4. 2023 | admin
