Education and training has never been stronger, or more fragmented.
Thousands of founder-run providers face succession risk, rising quality demands, and consolidating buyers. Private equity platforms, strategics, universities and awarding bodies are all acquiring at once.
Owners with a genuinely good business have real choices, provided they prepare for them. Acquirers with a clear thesis can build platforms of lasting value.
Read our insightsLatest from the deal map.
Open the deal map| Date | Target | Acquirer | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | Wellingtons Nursery | Strides Education | Early years |
| Oct 2026 | Little Pumpkins Nurseries | Kindred | Early years |
| Oct 2026 | Westfield House Childcare | ICP Educare | Early years |
| Sep 2026 | Aspiration Training | Verano Acquisitions Limited | Vocational training |
| Sep 2026 | Decoded | First Intuition | Corporate learning |
| Sep 2026 | Tech Professionals | Aquila Energy Group Ltd | Vocational training |
Six recent deals from the public layer of the map, no more than three from any one sector. The record runs to 405 verified transactions. The live map, including who is in market today, is maintained privately. The same approach now reads accounts and public registers for advisory firms: see how we build.
We work for sellers, buyers and their advisers.
For owners preparing to exit
We position the business, run a discreet and controlled process, and bring the right acquirer to the table on terms worth taking. You commit very little to start, and only move forward when there is something genuinely worth moving forward for. No buyer is approached without your sign-off.
Start a conversationFor acquirers building by acquisition
We sharpen the acquisition thesis, originate targets quietly, including those not on the market, and steer the deal to completion at the right price. Diligence is managed by a principal, and the structure reflects what it finds.
For an advisory firm growing by acquisition, we run the programme end to end: the map of the market, the approaches to owners, the assessment of each target, and the deal through to completion. A monthly fee during the search and a success fee on completion.
Start a conversationFor advisers, brokers and accountants running a deal
We build the materials and you run the deal: information memoranda, financial data books and researched buyer lists, white-label, at a fixed fee and a fixed turnaround. The judgement, the client and the mandate stay yours.
The same reading of the records goes further when a firm wants it to: an engine built for one firm, finding the clients it should have and the targets it should buy.
See deal executionBuilt for one firm in each market.
Which companies should be our clients, and are not?
A specialist tax adviser asked that one question. We read every set of accounts filed at Companies House against the shape of a company that needs the firm's service, and return a ranked list each month with the reason beside each name. The same reading gives an acquirer its map of the market.
A firm with a market it knows and no way to see all of it
Specialist advisory firms: tax, accounting, legal, consulting, and the tech-enabled advisers alongside them. Usually founder-led, £1m to £50m of revenue, either growing by referral and ready to grow by data, or growing by acquisition and in need of a map.
One firm per market, judged before it is bought
Each engine is built for one firm, in one market, and is not built again for a competitor of that firm while we work together. Every build starts with a sample on the firm's own market, so the list is judged before anything is committed. Each build is scoped and priced for the firm.
Start a conversationThe people in the room.
Two principals on every deal. No junior team and no handover: the people you meet are the people who negotiate.
Alex Lockey
Deal strategy, engines and market intelligence
Twenty years advising leaders across education and training, and a network of operators, investors and acquirers built over that time. Alex has built, run and sold businesses himself, and brings an operator's judgement to positioning, buyer strategy and negotiation. Counsel from someone who has sat on the owner's side of the table.
LinkedInJoe Thomsett
Origination and negotiation
A chartered accountant with deep corporate finance and due diligence experience across a career of transactions. Joe reads the accounts before the pitch, defends value through diligence, and structures terms that stand up to scrutiny. Steady, exacting counsel from first conversation to completion.
LinkedInInsights.
All insights
What AI does to the value of an education business
The questions boards and owners are asking about AI, answered with the deal and apprenticeship data we track: what is losing value, what is holding it, and what buyers will ask next.
Read the pieceThe three things every buyer asks in the first ten minutes
Owners expect the first buyer conversation to be about the numbers. It rarely is. Why buyers ask about people first, funding second and the accounts last, and what to do a year early.
Read the guideWhere the capital is moving in education and training
A read of 357 verified deals over the two years to July 2026: where the money is going, who is buying, and what it means for owners.
Read the market viewAre you ready to sell? A readiness rubric for founders
The mindset of a sale, what to expect from the process, and a scorecard to grade yourself honestly before you speak to anyone.
Read the rubricGet the briefing.
The Thomsett Lockey read on education and training M&A, by email. No noise.
Thinking about a sale, or an acquisition?
The first conversation is confidential, costs nothing, and commits you to nothing. We typically work where enterprise value is £2m or more.