Cherry Tree & Associates | January 2026 | Volume XIX, Issue 7

SELECTED NEWS

Vanderbilt University Acquires California College of Arts

Vanderbilt University has agreed to acquire the campus of the California College of the Arts following CCA’s wind-down, subject to regulatory and transactional approvals. The acquisition is intended to support Vanderbilt’s plans to establish a new academic campus in San Francisco beginning in 2027, expanding the university’s national footprint and extending its interdisciplinary education model into a global center for technology, creativity, and entrepreneurship. The new campus is expected to serve approximately 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students and will integrate programs spanning engineering, design, the arts, and entrepreneurship.

vanderbilt.edu

Augustana Acquires Trinity College Nursing Programs

Augustana College agreed to acquire the academic programs and operations of Trinity College of Nursing & Health Sciences, building on an existing partnership between the institutions. Trinity College focuses on nursing and health sciences education and is affiliated with UnityPoint Health, while Augustana is a private liberal arts college. The transaction integrates Trinity’s programs into Augustana’s academic structure while maintaining clinical connections with regional healthcare providers.

wqad.com

Human Capital Education Acquires Kennedy & Company Education Strategies

Human Capital Education acquired Kennedy & Company Education Strategies, combining two higher education consulting firms serving more than 300 colleges and universities nationwide. The transaction expands Human Capital Education’s capabilities across institutional strategy, financial planning, enrollment and pricing strategy, and CRM implementation, adding deeper expertise in Salesforce, Slate, and other platforms.

kennedyandcompany.com

Pathful Acquires Jobready360

Pathful, a career readiness and development platform serving more than 2.5 million students, acquired Jobready360, a provider of college and career readiness, work-based learning, and CTE management software. The combination expands Pathful’s platform with capabilities in graduation planning, course sequencing, work-based learning coordination, and CTE pathway tracking, adding hundreds of district customers and a team with deep CTE expertise. Together, the companies aim to deliver a more comprehensive solution that supports both required compliance reporting and meaningful career development outcomes for K–12 schools.

pathful.com

Small Miracles Acquires Gingerbread Schools

Small Miracles, a multi-location early education provider backed by Traverse Pointe Partners, acquired Gingerbread Schools, a childcare and early education operator with three locations in the Tampa–St. Petersburg market. The transaction expands Small Miracles’ geographic footprint beyond Arizona and marks its entry into Florida, supporting continued growth and scale.

traversepointe.com

Seacoast Capital Invests in Stellar Education

Seacoast Capital invested in Stellar Education to support Stellar’s acquisition of a Massachusetts-based operator of early childhood education centers serving children from infancy through pre-K. Stellar, a platform launched by ECY Partners, is focused on acquiring and developing early education centers across the Northeast, offering education-based childcare and summer enrichment programs. Seacoast’s investment, structured as a combination of unitranche debt and equity, supported the recapitalization of the business and provided liquidity to founding shareholders.

seacoastcapital.com

Pan Am Flight Academy Acquires Alliance Aviation

Pan Am Flight Academy acquired Alliance Aviation, a provider of professional pilot training and aviation services. Alliance Aviation delivers flight training and related aviation education, and Pan Am Flight Academy offers career pilot and flight operations training. The acquisition expands Pan Am Flight Academy’s training capabilities and program offerings in professional aviation education.

prnewswire.com

OnlineEd, LLC Acquires Assets of Empire Learning

OnlineEd, LLC acquired the assets of Empire Learning, LP, a provider of real estate education and training for real estate professionals. Empire Learning offers pre-licensing and continuing education courses, while OnlineEd operates education programs across real estate and related professional fields. The acquisition brings Empire Learning’s education offerings under OnlineEd’s platform.

prnewswire.com

Ultimate Knowledge Institute Receives Growth Investment from True Wind Capital

True Wind Capital made a growth investment in the Ultimate Knowledge Institute, a provider of cybersecurity workforce readiness solutions that serves national security agencies, government contractors, state governments, and commercial enterprises with its OpenDash360 learning and readiness platform. Ultimate Knowledge Institute delivers competency-driven training, custom cyber content, immersive ranges, and interactive experiences for building and maintaining cyber workforces. The investment is intended to support the company’s continued expansion and strategic initiatives around product, content, and sales capabilities.

businesswire.com

Blank Slate Technologies Receives Seed Investment

AE Ventures led a seed investment in Blank Slate Technologies, with participation from Fulcrum Venture Group, supporting the company’s development of adaptive AI-driven cognitive readiness tools. Blank Slate Technologies provides a platform designed to strengthen human performance and close knowledge gaps in high-stakes operational environments. The company’s platform is used to enhance readiness and performance for teams in sectors where error tolerance is extremely low, including defense and aviation.

blankslatetech.co

PraxisPro Raises $6 Million Seed Round

PraxisPro raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by AlleyCorp, with participation from Flybridge, South Loop Ventures, Zeal Capital Partners, True Ventures, Techstars, Alumni Ventures, and Daring Ventures. The company provides an AI-driven platform that supports commercial intelligence and training for life sciences organizations by integrating fragmented data. The funding is intended to support continued development of the platform and expanded use of AI across education and planning workflows.

businesswire.com

American College of Education Receives Growth Investment from Bain Capital Double Impact

American College of Education (ACE), a provider of affordable and flexible degree programs for adult learners, received a strategic investment from Bain Capital Double Impact. The partnership will support ACE’s continued growth and innovation, including program development, technology enhancements, and expanded employer and institutional partnerships.

baincapitaldoubleimpact.com

Newsela Acquires Schoolytics

Newsela, a provider of K–12 instructional and assessment products, acquired Schoolytics, an analytics and AI platform that helps districts measure, monitor, and manage student data. The addition strengthens Newsela’s data capabilities by combining academic, behavioral, and attendance insights with workflows that support interventions and progress monitoring, giving educators a more unified view of student performance and enabling more efficient, data-informed decision-making across schools and districts.

newsela.com

Bottom Line and Get Schooled Merge

Bottom Line and Get Schooled, two U.S. college access nonprofits, have merged to form a unified national nonprofit focused on college access and postsecondary success for low-income students. Bottom Line, based in Boston, offers research-proven, high-touch one-on-one advising, and Get Schooled, based in Seattle, provides advanced, tech-enabled support resources. The organizations said the merger brings together their complementary models and broadens support for college access, success, and early career readiness for students and educators nationwide.

globenewswire.com

Galileo Education Acquires Putnam Classical Academy and New Generation Christian School

Millpond Equity Partners and its portfolio company Galileo Education acquired Putnam Classical Academy and New Generation Christian School, expanding Galileo’s network of private K–12 schools in Florida. The additions extend Galileo’s footprint in northeast Florida and support its strategy of building a regional platform of individualized, values-driven private schools across the Southeast. Both schools will retain their local identities and leadership while gaining access to Galileo’s operational infrastructure, curriculum resources, and network-wide best practices.

millpondequity.com

Cadence Education Acquires East Cobb Prep

Cadence Education acquired East Cobb Prep, an early learning center serving the greater Atlanta area. East Cobb Prep provides early childhood education and care, while Cadence Education operates a national network of early childhood education centers. The transaction included both the operating business and the underlying real estate.

prnewswire.com

NIIT MTS Acquires Sweetrush for $26M

NIIT Learning Systems (NIIT MTS), a global provider of managed learning services, acquired SweetRush, an AI-enabled custom learning experience design firm, for consideration of up to $26 million including performance-based earnouts. The transaction expands NIIT’s services portfolio by adding SweetRush’s human-centered, custom learning design, certification-oriented content, and talent solutions to NIIT’s global managed learning platform.

sweetrush.com

Summit Point Leadership Acquires LDR Leadership

Summit Point Leadership LLC, an all-veteran ownership team formed through Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and its Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Lab, acquired LDR Leadership, a nationwide provider of leadership, management, and supervisory training. The transaction supports continued investment in curriculum, talent, and national growth while maintaining LDR Leadership’s existing management team and training programs.

prnewswire.com

Preply Raises $150 Million

Preply raised $150 million in a Series D funding round led by WestCap. The company operates a global language learning marketplace that connects tutors with learners through human-led instruction supported by AI-enhanced tools. The funding is intended to support the expansion of personalized, AI-enhanced language education across global markets.

preply.com

CyberNut Recieves Strategic Growth Investment from Growth Street Partners

CyberNut secured a minority growth investment from Growth Street Partners to support its AI-powered cybersecurity training platform for K–12 school districts. The company provides AI-enabled tools, phishing simulations, and gamified training designed to help school staff and students identify and respond to cyber threats. The investment is intended to support product development and expand CyberNut’s reach in the K–12 education market.

prnewswire.com

Exxat Receive Strategic Growth Investment from Accel-KKR

Accel-KKR made a minority growth investment in Exxat, a provider of software that supports clinical and experiential education across healthcare disciplines. Exxat offers technology that connects academic programs, clinical partners, and learners through tools for placements, compliance, and curriculum management. The investment is intended to support innovation and expand Exxat’s reach across healthcare education and workforce development.

accel-kkr.com

Pearl Raises $8 Million in Seed Funding

Pearl raised $7.76 million through a combination of Seed-6 and Seed-7 funding from 114 Ventures, MP Software Ventures, and Charlottesville Angel Network, with other additional investors participating. Pearl operates a tutor management platform that connects children with local college students and experienced mentors for academic tutoring, athletic training, and music instruction.

CHERRY TREE EDUCATION FOR-PROFIT 50 INDEX

Cherry Tree created the Education For-Profit 50 Index representing a group of publicly traded for-profit education companies. The For-Profit Education 50 Index consists of companies in the Pre-K-12, Postsecondary Education, Training and Development, Education Products and Services, and International Education Company segments for-profit education industry.

* EV=Enterprise Value

MONTHLY COMMENTARY

Last month we announced our research report on AI Impact in Education, and we appreciate all of the positive feedback we’ve received. (Its not too late to get your version here: Cherry Tree Education Capital Markets: AI Impact Report)

This month we look at the impact of AI with K-12 publishers. As if the Supplemental Products didn’t already have enough issues with ESSER funding going away and a bit of an ed-tech backlash from COVID-era requirements, AI seems likely to disrupt their businesses. Unlike the Core Curriculum market where we believe states and districts will continue to favor proven, research-based, high-quality materials, customers appear to be more open to exploring with supplemental AI tools that can provide helpful additional resources. This is not to say that Supplemental Products don’t have staying power, many do and will. We expect others to be challenged.

AI is proving to be an opportunity for publishers as well. We’re seeing many companies (if not most) experiment with ways to personalize learning using AI, to better incorporate data feeds into their offerings, and to test tools that truly reduce the administrative burden on teachers so they can do more of what we and they all want them to do – teach! We’re also seeing nearly all publishers explore ways to use AI to lower their curriculum and assessment development budgets, and even have heard of marketing teams (perish the thought, coders!) using AI to fix bugs and provide accessibility enhancements without involving development at all. We don’t advise it, but it is happening.

How will AI impact your business, especially when it comes to investing and M&A? For a confidential discussion about your company’s prospects and strategic alternatives for exiting, merging, acquiring, or obtaining venture financing, and how trends in education affect your prospects, please contact us at 952-893-9012.

About Cherry Tree & Associates:

Cherry Tree is a Minneapolis-based investment banking firm with more than four decades of transaction experience, with education being a primary segment focus. Our services include Sell-Side M&A where ownership wants to either realize their liquidity goals or desires to recapitalize their business to better position it for future growth. Additionally, we represent Buy-Side clients in efforts to add acquisitions to complement their organic growth efforts.

Prepared by:

Chad Johnson, Managing Partner

cjohnson@cherrytree.com | 952.253.6010

www.cherrytree.com

Follow me on Twitter@ChadEricJohnson

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Important Disclosures

The information included in this publication has been obtained from public sources, and is not based upon private or confidential Cherry Tree information. Cherry Tree gathers its data from sources it considers reliable. However, it does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided within this publication. Any opinions presented reflect the current judgment of the authors and are subject to change. Cherry Tree makes no warranties, expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy of this information or any opinions expressed by the authors. Officers, directors, partners of Cherry Tree and Cherry Tree proprietary investment funds may have positions in the securities of the companies discussed, and certain affiliates of Cherry Tree may recommend to specific clients the purchase and sale of securities discussed in the publication. This publication does not constitute a recommendation with respect to the securities of any company discussed herein, and it should not be construed as such. Cherry Tree or its affiliates may from time to time provide investment banking or related services to these companies. Like all Cherry Tree employees, the authors of this publication receive compensation that is affected by overall firm profitability. We undertake no obligation to update any information in this publication.

The Education For-Profit (EFP) 50 Index is a hypothetical index, and does not reflect an actual investment portfolio. Comparisons between the EFP 50 Index and the S&P 500 are for illustrative purposes only. Correlations in performance information for the EFP 50 Index and the S&P 500 should not be relied upon as indicative of risks involved in owning or holding a portfolio of securities similar to the EFP 50 Index. Past performance should not be relied upon as indicative of future performance.