Four years after entering Central & Eastern Europe, Maple Bear, the largest and fastest growing franchise of K-12 bilingual schools in the world, is partnering with Vantage Capital in a €100 million investment program for the region. 

The Vantage investment program in Maple Bear Central & Eastern Europe has four components:

• An equity investment into the regional head office to fund the recruitment of up to 70 additional team members who will strengthen the quality of the education support offered to Maple Bear School owners, teachers, and children, and help accelerate the expansion of the school network across the region,
• The capitalization of Maple Bear Polska which plans, with the help of its local Polish shareholders, to open more than 40 schools,
• The capitalization of Maple Bear Czech Republic which will target more than 20 schools, and,
• A real estate funding program to enable Maple Bear school owners to build large, flagship K12 schools in prime locations.

In Romania, the partnership with Vantage will accelerate the process of opening new kindergartens and schools, attracting serious investors to the Maple Bear network of franchised schools. 

“There is increasing demand in the region for bilingual education which our schools are ideally placed to satisfy. Our franchise concept is proven with successful launches in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, and soon Albania. Now, our partnership with Vantage Capital gives us the financial firepower to achieve our ambitious growth targets: to build a school network of over 200 schools in the region.” says Yann Bidan, General Manager for Maple Bear CEE (in opening picture - right side).

Maple Bear is a premium brand and offers full Canadian bilingual teaching methodologies and strategies, utilizing Canadian and local curriculums in full conformity with local education regulations. There are currently more than 570 Maple Bear Early Childhood, Elementary and High School franchises in more than 30 countries.

“Maple Bear offers the best of Canadian education for a global future, and it is the world leader in the provision of bilingual education. It instills critical thinking skills in students that will ensure their success in a rapidly changing world,” states Maple Bear Global Schools Founder and Chairman, Rodney Briggs. “We provide unparalleled support to our schools through a proprietary curriculum developed by Canadian and local educators and through the support provided by the almost 300 Canadian faculty who train and support our Maple Bear teachers around the globe.”

“Collaboration and cooperation are cornerstones of the Maple Bear philosophy. Our goal is to have beneficial partnerships” states Arno Krug, Maple Bear Global Schools CEO, “and we are delighted to form this new partnership with Vantage Capital who share our philosophy. We look forward to the rapid expansion of Maple Bear in Central and Eastern Europe to provide families with the opportunity to enjoy a world class education at a reasonable price.”

In Central & Eastern Europe, Maple Bear has currently 10 schools, operational or in implementation in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, and Ukraine and is planning an additional 200 new schools in 22 countries over the next decade, thanks to its partnership with Vantage Capital.

“We decided two years ago to focus on the opportunities in the education sector with our new division called Vantage Best in Class. We are delighted that our plans have lived up to the name. The partnership with Maple Bear is indeed ‘Best in Class’ and together we will undoubtedly become the leaders in premium bilingual education in a region of over 250 million people” said Luc Albinski, Executive Chairman of Vantage Capital (in opening picture - left side).

About Vantage Capital

Vantage Capital is an alternatives asset manager headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with over $1.2 billion of assets under management. It employs twenty-five staff based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Cairo, Dubai, Paris, and Sofia.  Vantage Best in Class, the newest division within Vantage, funded by European families and entrepreneurs, seeks to invest in Education and EdTech companies in Europe. Vantage has teamed up with Melvyn Lubega, the co-founder of Go1, one of the largest curated eLearning library in the world and an education unicorn that recently raised $100m from Softbank, Salesforce, and Microsoft amongst other investors at over a $2 billion valuation, to invest in Maple Bear Polska. The other two divisions are Vantage Mezzanine which has provided mezzanine debt and equity funding solutions to thirty-three companies across eleven countries and Vantage GreenX which has funded 14 solar and wind projects with a combined capacity of over 1,000 MW and for a value of approximately $800m. 

About Maple Global Schools & Maple Bear CEE

Maple Bear Global Schools was founded in 2003 in North Vancouver, Canada. Today, the Maple Bear network includes more than 570 schools in 30+ countries. Maple Bear Global Schools is a world leader in bilingual education, offering high quality Infant care, Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary and Secondary education, based on practices that place Canadian education among the best on the planet. Maple Bear is proud to bring the best of Canadian education for a global future to 48,000 students around the world.

Maple Bear Central and Eastern Europe is the regional office of Maple Bear Global Schools, responsible for 22 countries in the region with the intent to deploy and support in the coming years a network of 200 Maple Bear Schools.

Yann Bidan, General Manager at Maple Bear CEE, has more than 16 years of experience in entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe. He co-founded and led since 2017, as Country Director, TELUS International Romania, the local branch of a Canadian company. Yann received the Romanian citizenship in 2018. He strongly believes that Maple Bear will contribute greatly to the education of the new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe. Yann Bidan is as well the VP International Relations French Tech Bucharest.

Interested to own a Maple Bear School? Learn more here.