NEW YORK – February 6, 2023 – VSS Capital Partners (“VSS”), a private investment firm investing in healthcare, business services and education, announced today that it has completed a partial sale of its interest in Really Great Reading, LLC (“RGR” or “the Company”), a national, leading provider of scientifically-aligned literacy curriculum for students in grades pre-K through high school, to funds managed by The Vistria Group. While financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, VSS will continue to own a minority stake in RGR following the realization of its investment and continue to serve on the Company’s board.
Founded in 2005, RGR develops supplemental educational curriculum focused on foundational literacy. Headquartered in Cabin John, Md., the Company has developed structured literacy programs through a suite of instruction, assessment, practice and professional development products that help educators align their daily practices with evidence-based reading methods, which empower educators’ ability to teach literacy skills.“VSS has a long history of investing in education businesses. This transaction is testament to our ability to generate value for our partners even during changing market and economic cycles,” said Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner of VSS. 1 & 2
“We’re thrilled to continue partnering with RGR as they continue to innovate and deliver mission-critical solutions to educators that lead to strong decoding skills for today’s students of all ages,” added Trent Hickman, Managing Director at VSS, which has made six platform investments in the education sector. RGR offers student-facing and teacher-facing solutions through digital subscriptions, serving more than 600,000 students and 40,000 teachers in all 50 states.“We would like to thank VSS for the outstanding guidance and support they provided throughout our partnership,” said Scott DeSimone, Co-Founder and CEO of RGR. “We look forward to continue partnering with them and delivering additional value for educators in key markets across the country and globally through our next generation phonics, digital solutions suite and the exciting launch we’ve planned for Vocabulary Playground in 2023,” he added. 3
Partnering closely with management, VSS worked closely with RGR on several value creation initiatives over the last two years, including the strengthening of the Company’s senior leadership team. During this period, RGR announced the hires of both a new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. In February 2022, RGR also announced the acquisition of InferCabulary, a provider of a web-based vocabulary program that helps K-12 students learn to think critically and build their vocabulary.
Macquarie Capital served as financial advisor to RGR and Proskauer Rose LLP served as legal advisor to RGR.
About VSS
Headquartered in New York, VSS is a private investment firm that invests in healthcare, business services and education companies. Since 1987, VSS has partnered with lower middle-market companies, working closely with management teams, to facilitate their next stage of growth. VSS provides capital for growth financings, recapitalizations, strategic acquisitions, and buyouts with the flexibility to invest control or non-control capital, based on the needs and objectives of each company. VSS has managed $4 billion in committed capital across 8 funds and has completed 95 platform investments and over 400 add-on acquisitions. For more information, please visit: www.vss.com.
About Really Great Reading
Really Great Reading is a leader in the Science of Reading Movement, and an educational content provider of foundational and supplemental literacy skills to primary and secondary grades with a focus on phonics, vocabulary, decoding and fluency. The company has a comprehensive suite of products that include instruction, assessment and professional development that help educators teach the foundational skills that lead to strong decoding and fluent reading.
1. Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner of VSS, is also the General Partner of the VSS Funds.
2. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Therefore, no current or prospective client should assume that the future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy (including the investments and/or investment strategies recommended by the advisor), will be profitable or equal to past performance levels.
3. Scott DeSimone is the Co-Founder and CEO of RGR (a portfolio company of VSS) and is not being compensated for sharing their opinion and experience with our firm. Scott DeSimone’s comments may not represent any other person’s experience with the firm.