Our Work

The private and independent education sector is experiencing tremendous growth across the world, and in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, is emerging as a viable alternative to publicly funded education for expanding educational capacity and quality for children of all economic backgrounds.

Despite growth in the sector, private schools at both ends of the economic spectrum, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, continue to face major constraints due to the limited availability of medium and long-term capital to support improvements to school infrastructure, pedagogy, and operations.

The lack of investment in private schools is largely a function of information asymmetries. On the supply side, debt and equity investors remain largely uninformed as to the operating characteristics, economic viability, profitability, and creditworthiness of private schools – and therefore, do not pursue them as readily as they do opportunities in other sectors.

To address the challenge of reducing information asymmetries and increasing the flow of commercial capital to private schools, School Ventures has established a framework of analysis for evaluating school performance. Our school performance ratings serve as a way for investors to understand the risks and opportunities associated with investing in schools.