Excolere Equity Partners, a middle-market private equity firm focused on investments in the education and human capital management sector, has acquired EPS School Specialty, the literacy and math solutions division of School Specialty LLC.

EPS is a developer of curriculum products and services that work to improve literacy and math skills for K-12 grade-level students, particularly those that are two-plus years behind grade level. The company’s product offerings include those that are based on science of reading principles and reading intervention strategies. As part of the acquisition, Excolere added Steven Guttentag as chief executive officer of EPS. Excolere was joined in the investment by a consortium of investors including Cambridge Information Group.

“There is an undisputed need for the solutions EPS provides, which effectively teach and remediate reading and math-related learning loss,” comments Pete Davis, partner at Excolere. “Given the systemic reading and math achievement issues in our country, compounded by Covid-19 learning loss, we believe EPS has a significant opportunity to serve young learners at scale.”

Tyton Partners served as financial advisor to School Specialty. Lincoln International, Triago, and DLA Piper respectively served as debt advisor, private placement agent, and legal advisor to Excolere.