HEAL Partners leads Series C-1 funding round for Edstart
HEAL Partners ("HEAL"), a global growth and follow-on investment firm specialising in Health and Education sector investments, announces a follow-on investment into Edstart, a Sydney based B2B Payments platform start-up founded in 2016 that offers a streamlined end-to-end fee management service for education providers.
The funding round was also supported by existing investors, including AS1 Growth Partners and Larsen Ventures.
With over $2 billion of student payment arrangements managed since inception, Edstart has grown by over 120% annually over the past three years, with its student numbers continuing to grow by almost double in the past 12 months.
Edstart provides cash flow certainty to schools and other education providers whilst enabling flexibility for customers to make payments in line with their own household budget, by centrally managing the fee process.
School and parents have strongly endorsed the model, with both rating Edstart in the top quartile globally for net promoter score. Schools report a reduced administration burden and improved relationship with their customers as the top features of the Edstart service.
Second to a mortgage, K-12 school fees are one of the largest household expenses for Australian families, with significant lump sum payments presenting a major cash flow challenge, particularly in multi-child households.
HEAL Partner and Edstart Director, Martin Dalgleish, said education fee payments represented a large market opportunity with the pain points for both the education providers and families clearly solved by the Edstart offering.
“We know more than 40% of Australian families attend fee-paying schools, with the size of the sector and the associated fees continuing to grow rapidly,” Mr Dalgleish said.
Edstart CEO Jack Stevens said it was pleasing to be delivering proven value to both education providers and their customers.
“We believe education is the world’s most powerful investment and we’re on a mission to help people pay for that in a better way,” Mr Stevens said.
“In 2025 we understand that the current operating environment means many schools will be having material increases to their fees in 2025. At the same time, families have faced added pressures on their household budget with higher cost of living over the past couple of years, which has reduced their ability to take on additional costs. Our track record shows that schools using the Edstart service can moderate their fee increases to customers by way of the significant efficiency gains that our model delivers.”
About Edstart:
Edstart was founded by a passionate team of Australian education and finance specialists who believe in the power of education. Edstart’s goal is to help make education costs sustainable, flexible and easier to manage for schools, families and students.
Edstart’s proprietary technology platform ensures that education providers collect fee payments on time and in full, whilst providing their customers with peace of mind and maximum flexibility around how and when they pay.
About HEAL Partners:
This investment in Edstart represents the fourth in HEAL Fund II, a targeted A$ 400 million+ growth and follow-on fund backed with an anchor commitment from affiliates of Elliott Investment Management L.P. HEAL Partners is a global growth and follow-on investment firm focused on revenue generating growth businesses in the Health, Education and related Lifestyle sectors with the potential for global scale and industry disruption. Led by a team of proven founders, investors, portfolio managers and operators, HEAL capitalises on investment opportunities created by the growing demand for quality education and healthcare from the rapidly aging population, the disruptive impact of technology on its focus sectors and new specialities in developed markets. 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. HEAL is committed to working with its portfolio companies to improve their approach to ESG.
HEAL’s five-member Investment Committee consists of Peter Chapman, Martin Dalgleish, Mark Evans, Chris Chambers and Martin Robinson, with Chris Vossen in the USA rounding out the partnership group. Peter Chapman, Mark Evans and Chris Chambers are proven founders, operators and investors in health and education sector growth businesses, including Kids Campus, DentalCorp, DentalCorp Canada, The Fertility Partners, Edge Early Learning, and Removery. Martin Dalgleish has 40 years of operating and board experience in tech, consumer, telco and media with leading brands including PBL, Optus, Dixons, Rank, PepsiCo, and IBM. He was previously a Non-Executive Director of KPMG Australia. Martin Robinson, formerly of Macquarie Capital, brings a wealth of experience in acquiring and managing health assets, including as Executive Chairman of the largest Private Hospital Group in Vietnam (Hoan My Medical Corporation), and as an early investor in, and prior Board Director of, Halodoc. Chris Vossen worked for a leading U.S. investment bank for 15 years specialising in retail healthcare and multi-unit services banker in the USA and has also founded his own his multi-unit services business in South-East USA.
HEAL is also backed by pre-eminent industry leaders in the Health and Education sectors, including Chris Rex (Former CEO of Ramsay Health Care), Stuart Giles and Cathie Reid (Co-founders of Icon Group and Epic Pharmacy), and Rod Jones (Founder and Executive Chairman of Navitas), Dr Andrew Meikle, (founder of Dental Corp Canada and The Fertility Partners), Jonathan Sudharta (founder of Halodoc) and Professor Jeremy Lim (co-founder of Amili) alongside other industry luminaries.
Find out more about HEAL Partners at: https://www.healpartners.com/.