Bain Capital bets on ed-tech company HiMama through its impact fund

Bain Capital is leading a $70 million funding round into HiMama, a software provider for childcare centers through its impact platform.

Bain is investing through its Double Impact Fund. The capital from the investment will go towards accelerating the development of a full suite of engagement, content and administrative tools to enhance early childhood education. This will enable HiMama to serve additional childcare centres in Canada and the US, fuel further investments in product development and offer a foundation for opportunistic growth by acquisition.

The funding was led by Bain, with the series B minority investment, which includes participation from existing investors Round13 Ventures and Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

The investment comes from Bain’s double impact fund, which pursues equity investments, primarily in North America, across three core themes – health & wellness, education & workforce development and sustainability.

“Our investment in HiMama fits squarely in our ‘education and workforce development’ impact theme, where we look to invest in strong, mission-driven businesses with great potential to drive better educational outcomes,” said Iain Ware, managing director at Bain Capital Double Impact.

HiMama was founded in Toronto in 2014 and provides childcare centres with tools to more efficiently manage staff, class scheduling, billing and collection, as well as classroom learning activities. The platform also is meant to engage parents.

It is also a Certified B Corporation, meeting standards of transparency and accountability in using business as a means of delivering positive social change.

“This investment aligns well with our prior investments in mission-driven education and workforce development companies like TeachTown, PresenceLearning and Penn Foster,” said Ware.

Bain Capital has invested in other Canadian companies, including Canada Goose, Dollarama and BRP as well as leading payments companies such as Finix, Flywire, Nets and Worldpay.

This article first appeared in affiliate publication PE Hub