Souter Investments, the family investment office specialising in private equity, has partnered with Averna Capital to complete an investment in SI-UK, the leading international student recruitment company for UK higher education institutions, via Averna Investco III.
The leader in student placement and support to the UK market, SI-UK works closely with universities and higher education institutions to achieve their international student recruitment goals. The company assists students throughout the entire university application and selection process through a network of eighty offices across forty countries.
SI-UK co-founder and Managing Director Dwayne Gallagher said: “SI-UK started in 2006 with offices in Tokyo and Osaka followed by London. Over the last 16 years, SI-UK has shown stellar growth and expanded across all corners of the world. Today we have sales and marketing teams in nine of the UK’s top ten student source countries. We have built long-lasting relationships with UK universities and are committed to offering them best-in-class services. We believe there is significant potential to grow further, and we are excited to continue our journey.”
The investment will provide SI-UK with capital for further growth and support the company in continuing its internationalisation; developing its data and technology capabilities; and in building an institutional platform appropriate to its growing footprint.
Orion Judge, co-founder and Global Director, added: “Working with Averna’s experienced team and utilising Averna’s sizeable investment, SI-UK will be able to expand its operations, staffing, services, marketing, and technology to better support client universities and students globally. This investment ensures SI-UK will reach our target of 100,000 student placements per year over the coming five years."
SI-UK’s founders remain significant shareholders and will continue to lead the company. The terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Averna’s Stephen Green added: “We are delighted to partner with Dwayne and Orion to support SI-UK during its next phase of growth. The business offers an indispensable bridge between universities and students, and we are impressed with the company’s international footprint built across multiple source markets. Universities see great benefits to recruitment of greater volumes of high-quality international students, and the United Kingdom is one of the world’s most favoured destination markets recognised for its superior quality of higher education.”
John Berthinussen, Managing Director at Souter Investments commented: “It is great to be able to partner again with Averna Capital and invest in another exciting, fast-growing and market leading international business, supporting Dwayne and Orion, two fantastic founder entrepreneurs.”
SI-UK is Souter Investments’ second investment with Averna, following the acquisition of leading voluntary carbon market specialists Climate Care and Natural Capital Partners, who merged to form Climate Impact Partners. Climate Impact Partners works with leading corporates, NGOs, and governments to deliver solutions for climate impact, ensuring organisations meet their carbon neutral, net zero and renewable energy goals.
In addition to SI-UK and Climate Impact Partners, Souter has also completed recent investment alongside Axiom Equity in Akixi, the leading cloud-based call analytics SaaS provider.
About SI-UK
Founded in 2006 by Dwayne Gallagher and Orion Judge, SI-UK has grown to become one of the most trusted student recruitment firms to the UK representing almost two hundred universities and higher education institutions. The company has assisted over half a million students with applications to UK institutions, and in 2022 expects to assist and advise over 85,000 student applicants on more than 220,000 applications, leading to 18,000 enrolments.
For more information, please visit: www.studyin-uk.com.
About Souter Investments
Souter Investments is one of the UK’s leading family investment offices specialising in private equity. Founded in 2006, Souter has invested over £500m in more than seventy unquoted companies and currently has significant investments in over thirty businesses, acting either as the lead investor or as a partner for other financial sponsors.
For more information, please visit: www.souterinvestments.com
About Averna
Averna Capital is an independent mid-market private equity firm founded by Richard Tudor and Stephen Green that pursues unique opportunities in the UK and Europe leveraging its team and its network’s wealth of experience.
For more information, please visit: www.avernacapital.com.
Press Enquiries
For Souter Investments press enquiries please contact Elspeth Brown at tigerbond on 0800 612 9890.