Case Studies

Quad-C has partnered with dozens of owners and management teams to help build their companies through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

BUILDING AN INDUSTRY LEADER

Colibri Group (“Colibri” or the “Company”) is a leading online provider of state-mandated continuing and qualifying education programs to professionals in the real estate, healthcare, financial services and appraisal markets. At the time of our exit, the Company served nearly 2 million licensed professionals each education cycle.

Quad-C was initially attracted to Colibri as one of the few scaled players in the highly fragmented professional education market.  The business model is highly recession resistant given the mandated nature of the training provided and, as a first mover in on-line learning, Colibri was well positioned to benefit from the shift towards more remote learning.  At the time of Quad-C’s investment in August 2014 the Company was primarily focused on real estate education and also maintained a small healthcare education business.  In partnership with the management team, Quad-C saw an opportunity to significantly expand the healthcare business, add a third ecosystem (financial services) to the end market mix and migrate to a more recurring, subscription-based product offering.  We invested heavily in people, content, marketing and technology on the way to successfully achieving these goals over our five-year investment period.

EXECUTING THE STRATEGY

With the support of Quad-C, management executed on a value creation plan.

  • Completed seven strategic acquisitions to broaden the Company’s content and end-markets served while continuing to drive double-digit organic growth.

  • Invested $15+ million to build ColibriConnect, Colibri’s cloud-based common IT platform

  • Enhanced management team by adding key executives, including a CFO, CMO, CTO and Chief Growth Officer; built out HR function to support talent acquisition and retention

  • Improved Marketing platform by adding skilled personnel, new technology and automation which leveraged digital channels, increased leads, and reduced customer acquisition costs

  • Introduced membership model to drive higher renewal rates and increased AOV

EXIT

After exceeding our growth plans and establishing the framework for continued future success, Quad-C successfully exited Colibri in 2019.