HEAL Partners Leads US$10m Funding Round in Crimson Education
Global Edtech company Crimson Education’s stated plan for Crimson Global Academy (CGA) – to build the world’s largest and most effective school – took another leap forward with a US$10 million funding round completed in August led by Australian-based global growth and follow-on fund HEAL Partners. The investment was made for the purpose of accelerating CGA’s growth and secured on the basis of a US$460 million Crimson Education valuation. Previous Crimson investors, Rt. Hon Sir John Key, Icehouse Ventures, US News, and K1W1, a New Zealand based investment company owned by Sir Stephen Tindall, also increased their position in the Edtech company.
HEAL Partners, which specialises in Health, Education and Lifestyle sector investments, invest in opportunities where they have unparalleled access, deep knowledge and can be operationally involved. Its partners and advisors have collectively created in excess of $19 billion in shareholder value over the last ten years.
HEAL Partner Martin Dalgleish says, “We were very pleased to invest in Crimson and support its ambition in becoming the clear global leader in the delivery of K-12 Education online through Crimson Global Academy.
“The impact of COVID in 2020 was an immediate tailwind in the delivery of education via digital platforms. We believe that a hybrid model of in-person combined with digital delivery is the future of education. The opportunity to disrupt the global K-12 education sector is substantial, and Crimson has already demonstrated the ability to scale the college consulting business globally. Its early traction in the online high school education delivery is impressive and we believe it will build materially. It will also leverage its leadership position in college consulting to become the pre-eminent disruptor in the education market in pre-college education.”
HEAL Partners advisor, investor and industry veteran Rod Jones says, “I am happy to see HEAL support a young entrepreneur in aiming to build a global powerhouse in education delivery, and I look forward to seeing Jamie realise those ambitions.”
Crimson Education Co-founder and CEO Jamie Beaton says, “This funding round and the investment by HEAL is an important milestone for Crimson and Crimson Global Academy.
“Traditional high schools underserve our brightest and most ambitious students. We are seeing students across the world embrace Crimson Global Academy as the progressive schooling option they have been waiting for to harness their full potential. At Crimson, we champion ambition within our students. Today’s fundraising is further validation of the focused work of our awesome education team in building the education system for the 22nd century.”
Robbie Paul, CEO of Icehouse Ventures and Crimson investor, says, “The most iconic start-ups often share two foundational features: one, teams with unique perspectives on the industries they are seeking to disrupt and two, market timing that enables the teams to catalyse significant change. We continue to invest because Crimson exhibits both of these in droves. Their magic is that they are simultaneously holding education in the highest regard and demonstrating that technology can transform how it is delivered.”
Crimson’s previous fundraising round was its Series C in October 2019, when it raised US$20 million at a US$240 million pre-money valuation. (The final, post-money valuation was US$260 million.) Crimson’s investors include Tiger Global, Chase Coleman, Julian Robertson and HighSage Ventures.
HEAL targets Health, Education and Lifestyle assets that are high-growth and globally and regionally scalable. Aside from founding its own opportunities, HEAL invests in later stage rounds where it can be an active and engaged participant in the management and operation of the underlying asset. Alongside Crimson Education, The HEAL Group (through various entities including the HEAL Partners Fund) since formation in 2020 has invested in Higher Ground Education, Edge Early Learning, Halodoc, The Fertility Partners and The Removery.
Over the past six years, Crimson Education students have received 370 offers to Ivy League universities and 126 offers to Oxford or Cambridge. Crimson’s admissions rates for top international colleges are between 2x and 4x the international averages. For nearly half of top-10 US universities, Crimson is at 4x or greater the global rates. Crimson students were 5x as likely to get into Columbia, and 4x as likely to get into Yale, Northwestern and Duke. Specifically, admission rates are:
Ivy League colleges (21%, 2x to 4x global rates depending on the university)
Non-Ivy Top-20 US Colleges (27%, >3x global rates)
Oxford / Cambridge (48%, 2.2x global rates)
Fact Sheet
Over the past six years, Crimson Education students have received 370 offers to Ivy League universities and 126 offers to Oxford or Cambridge.
Specific data on our 2020-2021 admissions round has been provided on our blog here;
Crimson’s tutors come from the top universities across the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The Crimson Global Academy has a full-time accredited teaching team with impeccable academic credentials:
Principal John Morris (ONZM) is the former headmaster at Auckland Grammar School
CEO Keisuke Shibata is the former managing director of the Auckland International College
Principal Mark Phillips worked at Macleans College for 35 years, winning the Outstanding Teacher Award there
Heads of departments (including Andrew Karlsberg, Steve Walker, Sheryl Husband, David Storey) each have 20+ years of experience
Crimson’s social impact and equity initiatives are designed to provide students with a platform, mentoring and resources to make a lasting impact on the global community. The Crimson Youth Fund is one of these, established in 2018 as a philanthropic arm of Crimson Education committed to provide students or recent graduates aged 13-21 with essential resources to bring their grass-roots initiatives (which are focused on social and educational benefits for students) to life in the coming years.
To date, students' initiatives that have been approved for funding by CYF, include:
Hackathons in the U.S.
Online Model UNs from Singapore
Global Debating Competitions from New Zealand
Free tutoring sessions by high schoolers for elementary students across California
The Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship is another Crimson community impact initiative, and was founded by Jamie Beaton to provide ambitious Maori high school students with tutoring and mentoring to help them stand out as top candidates at world leading universities. To date, 20 students have received the scholarship, with each receiving $20,000 worth of education and mentoring from Crimson’s university admissions and tutoring services.
Crimson has considerable operations in every continent except for Antarctica. In the 2019-2020 application year, it supported students from 35 countries with their applications. CGA has students enrolled from over 20 countries. Each group includes students from six continents.
Crimson’s largest markets are Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, New Zealand, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Crimson has consistently continued to expand around the world, and recently launched in Canada, Turkey, and India. A number of further expansion sites are being considered in 2021.
Ends
About HEAL Partners
HEAL is an early and growth stage acceleration investment vehicle focused on revenue generating growth businesses in the health, education and lifestyle sectors with the potential for global scale or industry disruption. Led by a team of proven founders, investors, portfolio managers and operators, we are focused on capitalising on opportunities created by new specialties in developed markets.
About Crimson Education
Crimson Education was founded in 2013 with the aim to supercharge students' ability to get accepted into the world's most competitive universities. Now operating in more than 20 countries and employing over 2,400 tutors and mentors, Crimson continues to expand upon its successful university admissions support initiatives to foster younger gifted and talented students through Crimson Rise, and older students through postgraduate candidacy development. They also operate over 8020 trusted Tuition Centres across 4 countries, including EduExperts, NumberWorks'n'Words and Dux College. Crimson Global Academy launched classes in 2020 and is proudly registered, recognised as a private school as set out in the Education Act 1989.