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| Tyton Partners Posts Record First-Half of 2022 Deal Closings We are pleased to announce that Tyton Partners Investment Banking division has completed another record number of deals in the first half of 2022 with a total of 12 transactions. Tyton has unlocked significant value for our sellside clients, consistently achieving top quartile outcomes for private, lower to middle market companies across the global knowledge sector. In the face of market volatility as we look ahead to the second half of 2022, we expect our momentum to continue, with a strong pipeline of high-quality deals. We will leverage our deep sector expertise and decades of transaction experience to help our clients navigate complexity in the capital markets. Challenging Global Market Conditions The global markets have faced significant challenges over the last few quarters having deteriorated rapidly since the end of 2021. A combination of negative macro-economic factors are currently at play with strong recessionary warnings as rising inflation has triggered a record rise in interest rates due to hawkish fed posturing, global supply chain issues in the wake of COVID-19, and the ongoing war in Ukraine have weighed on market activity and driven both investor conservatism and risk capitulation. Despite public market deterioration, private markets – and EdTech in particular – have been buffered by longer term, patient capital, strong secular trends both domestic and international, and funding streams that can withstand short term volatility and end market segments that tend to be counter cyclical. We believe this to be an unprecedented period of opportunity for established players with strong balance sheets willing to take advantage of the markets and proactively pursue targeted M&A from an offensive position. Financial Sponsors and institutional investors will continue to deploy capital in the lower middle market, as tactical tuck-in acquisitions will be seen as “lower risk” with respect to execution risk and valuation. In addition, we expect to see a strong hedge from certain international markets, where consumer spending and government ministries of education investments will remain overweighted to improving education outcomes amidst economic hardship. Tyton Partners’ Focus for the Second Half of 2022 Tyton Partners has built a team of experienced, investment banking specialists over the past decade with deep technical skills, domain expertise, and operating knowledge of the edtech and global knowledge markets. This has and will be a strong differentiator as investors navigate the future regulatory landscape, funding dynamics, potential political transitions, and growing emerging market innovation and demand for education solutions. With the Global Knowledge markets continuing to be a priority focus for investors, we expect to see growth across the three primary market pillars of PreK-12, post-secondary higher education, and human capital optimization segments. We are laser focused on catalyzing M&A activity in these markets as strategic thought leaders and differentiated market makers, facilitating the capitalization of high quality global edtech and knowledge growth businesses, assisting global strategics in unlocking untapped value via corporate divestitures of non-strategic assets, and being at the forefront of creative combinations and partnerships with institutions in the higher education ecosystem. We have seen recent growth in digital curriculum, AR/VR/XR, payments, safety and security, food services, DEI training, AI for EdTech, and machine learning woven into many of the applications and tools institutions and corporations have adopted. Tyton Partners continues to expand and diversify its practice by developing expertise across a variety of sectors that we believe will have counter cyclical dimensions in this new environment, including future of work, fintech, health tech, real estate tech, manufacturing tech, cloud based analytics tech, blockchain tech, and cybersecurity in service of learners, educational institutions and the enterprise. These innovations and advancements across the edtech ecosystem keeps us excited about the future state of our industry. We look forward to scheduling time with you to discuss your goals and initiatives for the second of half of 2022. We are deeply committed to serving our clients and colleagues with a unique suite of services that include M&A, capital market access and strategy consulting services, no matter what stage of the Company’s lifecycle. |