Investec acted as exclusive M&A adviser on the expansion of GfW Gesellschaft für Weiterbildung mbH’s shareholder base with the inclusion of Schülerhilfe
About the deal
GfW Gesellschaft für Weiterbildung mbH (“GfW”), a Berlin-based education group, is expanding its shareholder base to include Schülerhilfe. With Schülerhilfe, the group gains one of the most experienced partners in multi-site rollout in the education sector to support the further expansion of its network of locations.
With the founding of GfW in 2020, NGC Nachfolgekapital GmbH, together with a Berlin-based education entrepreneur, set out to build a leading provider of language education for expats. Today, GfW is a supra-regional education network with >10 locations, more than 200 employees and over 500 instructors. Beyond this, the group sees itself as an actor with social responsibility: language is a key driver of integration into the labour market and into society. With its offerings, from language education in Germany to the preparation of international skilled workers already in their country of origin, GfW makes a concrete contribution to opening up participation and professional prospects for people and to addressing the shortage of skilled workers in Germany.
Alongside the selective acquisition of companies, the focus of development was on organic growth. From its original site in Berlin, a network of locations has emerged in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart. In 2025, the opening of a location in Chennai (India) marked the first step of international expansion. Further locations are in preparation, both in the DACH region and internationally.
For this next growth phase, Schülerhilfe has now joined the shareholder base. With its experience in building and scaling networks of locations, it adds to GfW a capability intended to support further growth. Schülerhilfe has been backed by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners since 2024.
“”
Investec supported us from the very beginning, through targeted pre-marketing and a well-structured, competitive auction process, all the way to the completion of the transaction. With a pragmatic and focused approach and access to its international network, the Investec team found in Schülerhilfe and Levine Leichtman Capital Partners the right partner and co-shareholder for us. This enabled us to achieve a solution from which both the shareholders and GfW – Gesellschaft für Weiterbildung mbH benefit equally.
Our role
Investec acted as exclusive M&A adviser on the expansion of GfW’s shareholder base and ran a competitive auction process to find the best possible co-shareholder. Investec provided comprehensive support throughout the entire transaction, from the initial positioning as a platform in a fragmented and growing education market with buy-and-build potential, through managing investor outreach and coordinating the core workstreams, to supporting the due diligence and negotiation phase and the successful completion.
