In its first acquisition since being purchased by Seidler Equity, Unleashed Brands bought education provider Sylvan Learning in a deal announced last week.
Sylvan joins Urban Air Adventure Park, Class 101, Premier Martial Arts, Snapology, The Little Gym and XP League under the Unleashed umbrella. It’s the sixth acquisition for Unleashed in three years and comes a little over a year after Seidler, a private equity firm based in Marina del Rey, California, bought the platform company of youth activity brands.
CEO Michael Browning launched Urban Air in 2011 and a decade later established Unleashed in Bedford, Texas, outside Dallas. It added Premier Martial Arts, The Little Gym and Snapology in 2021, then Class 101 and XP League in 2022. The company has more than 1,200 units across its concepts.
Founded in 1979, Sylvan Learning provides education for K-12 students and has 562 locations. Unleashed acquired Sylvan for an undisclosed amount from Franchise Group Inc., which itself purchased Sylvan in 2021 for $81 million.
Browning said the latest deal came about through a mix of business connections and customer requests. “We had so many parents asking us where they can take their kids because they need help with reading or math,” he said, and with Snapology, which provides science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics programs, already in the platform, “we can layer in the Sylvan Learning program and expand it,” Browning said.
“Due diligence is really understanding first and foremost the product, services and intellectual property they have,” Browning said. “We absolutely fell in love with the SylvanSync product, which focuses on reading and math homework.
Michael Browning, CEO of Unleashed Brands
“It helps kids catch up, keep up and get ahead. What we loved about it was when we looked at the research and studies done, kids who were enrolling in these Sylvan programs were improving three times on reading and math after its completion.”
Browning said his team also compared Sylvan to competitors in the category, and found Sylvan to have the most robust offerings.
With the deal done, Browning said the priority for Unleashed is providing Sylvan and its franchisees with more systems, processes and procedures. The goal is to given operators more time to spend on educating the students.
“We want to put them in the position where they’re doing less back-office functions and more delivering exceptional tutoring to the kids,” Browning said. “There’s a lot of areas where we can help with the customer journey through marketing and a customer relationship management system. These franchisees and their center directors are amazing at delivering this curriculum, but we want to take some of the office work off their hands.”
Browning also said he wants to create a bridge between Sylvan and Class 101.
“We think it’s a huge opportunity,” Browning said. “A small percentage of Sylvan Learning’s revenue comes from ACT and SAT prep, and they have no college prep. Class 101 has a ton of college planning and a small amount of ACT/SAT prep. We believe it’s a match made in heaven to work together to have more college planning.”
As Unleashed digests this latest purchase, it is also in legal battles with franchisees of its other brands, including Premier Marital Arts, where owners allege negligent misrepresentation and claim violations of RICO, or the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, fraudulent inducement and breach of contract. In arbitration filings, Little Gym franchisees contend the parent company is imposing “damaging changes on the franchise businesses in violation of existing franchise agreements.”