Facilitating growth for global EdTech leaders - Humly
Long-term client Humly is at the forefront of the EdTech sector, operating the leading digital marketplace for supply teachers.
Long-term client Humly is at the forefront of the EdTech sector, operating the leading digital marketplace for supply teachers.
Their innovative platform empowers educators, giving the control over their resources, playing a crucial role in bridging the supply gap for schools, nurseries, and educators. With operations spanning both Sweden and the UK, Humly’s vision is to ensure every school and nursery has seamless access to quality staff, placing total control in the hands of educators.
The global demand for teachers is significant, with an estimated 44 million new teachers needed by 2030. The UK faces its own challenges, missing recruitment targets by over 50%, while teacher attrition rates continue to rise. Humly offers a solution by providing schools and nurseries with instant access to highly qualified teachers and nursery nurses, ensuring children consistently receive a great education.
Driving Growth Through Strategic Partnership
Growth has been a key pillar of our work with Humly. Since 2011, we have partnered closely with them, providing strategic, board-level legal advice across numerous transactions that have been integral to their strategic growth plan.
The Power in Partnerships
Our partnership with the Humly leadership has enabled us to function as a seamless extension of their team. This close collaboration has fostered a deep understanding of the EdTech industry and allowed our team to develop a deep understanding of Humly’s commercial objectives, and its operational nuances. Consequently, we have been able to successfully negotiate the most favourable terms across various growth projects. We’ve seen significant benefits from this partnership, notably:
Time & cost-effective due diligence
By operating as an extension of the Humly team, our experts can precisely target efforts and resources towards specific areas of concern and potential synergies during the due diligence phase of a transaction. Access to Humly’s historical due diligence findings allows for efficient application of prior insights, reducing the need for repetitive questioning and investigations that could otherwise require unnecessary involvement from the Humly leadership team. These time efficiencies naturally translate into greater cost-effectiveness for the Humly team throughout the project.
Enhanced accuracy and risk assessment
Our sustained engagement with Humly has provided us with a thorough understanding of their approach to risk during this buy-and-build growth stage. This deep understanding allows our team to focus on the most critical due diligence areas, minimizing the risk of overlooking potential liabilities and enabling us to allocate our resources and expertise accordingly.
Advice that is aligned to the businesses strategic goals
Our comprehensive understanding of Humly’s business allows our team to provide advice and take steps that are fully aligned with the long-term commercial objectives of the Humly leadership. This proactive approach effectively mitigates potential future challenges and post-completion issues, while also enabling our team to operate with greater autonomy. This allows the Humly leadership team to remain focused on their core business operations during this period of growth.
Most recently
Most recently, our team coordinated Humly’s acquisition of the specialist London-based supply agency Future Education. After five successful acquisitions and rebrands across the North, South and the Midlands since 2001, this marked the start of Humly’s entrance into the London supply market, worth upwards of £300 million per annum.