We are delighted to publicly announce Movac Growth Fund 6’s latest investment – Crimson Education.
Movac is leading the company’s Series D round with a NZ$25m investment. Crimson marks the third investment to be announced in Movac’s $200m Growth Fund 6, joining LawVu and Re-Leased. This fund targets investment in Kiwi technology companies that have experienced teams, proven product market fit and a scalable business model.
Crimson is an excellent addition to the Growth 6 fund. Crimson has achieved global reach and sector leadership, highlighting New Zealand’s ability to punch above our weight and take cutting-edge technology and innovations from New Zealand out into the world.
Transforming the way we learn
Crimson Education is building the world’s leading education platform for high achievers. Founded in 2013, it began as an admissions consulting business and has since expanded to include online schooling, asynchronous learning and tuition centres, serving students 5-18+ globally.
Founder and CEO, Jamie Beaton is a compelling and exceptionally talented founder who has attracted a world-class executive team. Under Jamie’s leadership, Crimson has established global reach with a track record of strong growth and a demonstrated ability to grow via acquisition.
Importantly, Crimson has developed a world-class technology platform which underpins its offering. This platform delivers high-quality, data-driven, personalised learning and student support, resulting in superior student outcomes, using a significant and growing dataset of students. The platform provides a strong foundation for scaling the business in a cost-efficient manner.
Crimson has established a substantial sustainable advantage, driven by its technology, superb student outcomes, outstanding team and high-quality brand. The business is well placed for continued success within the large global EdTech market.
Movac’s investment will support the business as it continues to scale, with further investment in the technology platform and further growth via acquisition.
A mission embodied by the founder
Jamie’s commitment to the belief that quality education should be universally accessible is tangible in what he has built at Crimson Education.
From being accepted into 25 of the world’s best universities as a New Zealand high school student, Jamie has gone on to receive numerous elite qualifications from universities including Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and Yale. These academic achievements were completed while building Crimson into a global company, operating in over 25 countries and with more than 800 employees.
This is a testament to Jamie’s energy, intelligence, curiosity, impressive commercial acumen, and ability to build an outstanding team around him.
Crimson sits at the top of its class
What makes Crimson so exciting in the eyes of the Movac team comes down to a few key factors.
Firstly, the world-class Founder and Management team have built a company that now earns the vast majority of its revenue from overseas.
Further, Crimson operates in a very large, yet fragmented market, across both admissions consulting and online schooling. With no single player having a dominant market share, Crimson is excellently positioned to take advantage of this.
This has combined to result in a long record of impressive growth, with plenty of upside remaining.
Finally, Crimson has excellent efficiencies for a business of its nature and has reached breakeven in the last couple of years. With further development of the technology platform, Crimson is very well placed to continue to scale efficiently and effectively.
Growing at top-quartile rates, in a capital-efficient manner is an ideal position to be in given the current market conditions. Crimson is well in control of its own destiny.
Building the Fund 6 Portfolio
Welcoming Crimson into the Growth Fund 6 portfolio is an exciting milestone for the Movac team. This investment continues to prove the Fund investment thesis of allocating capital during the ‘post-COVID boom’ period and being able to time our entry into leading New Zealand companies at a more attractive risk/reward level.
Moreover, Crimson represents Movac’s largest initial investment, highlighting our ability to deploy significant amounts of capital into Kiwi companies and providing evidence against the prevailing notion that you need to go offshore to attract large amounts of capital.
The New Zealand VC Village
Working with Jamie, FZ and the rest of the Crimson team has been a delight. They set a cracking pace during the investment and due diligence process, bringing high energy and enthusiasm right the way through. They’ve certainly set a high bar and we’re looking forward to continuing this journey with them.
This was a team-wide effort at Movac, with multiple Operating Partners stepping up alongside the investment team. Thank you to everyone for the insights and wisdom. We’re also grateful to our external advisors for their continued support, given this was Movac’s largest single cheque written to date.
