L Squared Capital Partners Announces Pending Sale of Kanopy to OverDrive

The pending sale marks the sixth exit for L Squared, and the fourth education-focused success story

OverDrive, a leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools, announced today that it is acquiring Kanopy, the leading video streaming service for public and academic libraries, from L Squared Capital Partners (“L Squared”). The acquisition of Kanopy will bring one of the industry’s most-acclaimed video catalogs to the OverDrive platform to better serve public and academic libraries around the world. Kanopy provides academic institutions and public libraries with an award-winning catalog of over 30,000 highly curated films that inspire, educate and entertain.

“We are grateful for our partnership with Kanopy’s CEO Kevin Sayar and the rest of their management team,” said Adam Kimura, Principal at L Squared. “Their leadership and innovation allowed the business to grow rapidly into a leading video streaming platform that is used by millions of students and library patrons across the world. The combination with OverDrive is a natural next step for Kanopy as together the businesses will deliver a more impactful platform to libraries worldwide. L Squared wishes Kanopy continued success and looks forward to following the company in its next chapter with OverDrive.”

“L Squared has been the perfect partner for us,” said Sayar. “Their long track record and deep expertise investing in education technology businesses enabled them to provide the strategic insight needed to scale our streaming platform from serving approximately 1,000 libraries at the beginning of 2018 to over 2,300 libraries today. We want to thank them for the great partnership that has produced outstanding results.”

About L Squared Capital Partners

L Squared makes long-term investments in leading growth companies that operate in targeted sectors: Education Technology, Tech-Enabled Services & Software, and Industrial Technology & Services. Our unique investor base of family offices enables us to focus on long-term value creation driven by revenue and earnings growth, not financial engineering or market timing. The principals of L Squared have worked together for over 15 years and have over 75 years of combined experience investing in growing private companies. For additional information, please visit www.LSquaredCap.com.

About OverDrive

OverDrive strives to create “a world enlightened by reading.” Serving a growing network of 65,000 libraries and schools in 84 countries, OverDrive delivers the industry’s largest digital catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and other content through award-winning apps. The Libby reading app for libraries is one of Popular Mechanics’ 20 Best Apps of the Decade, while the student reading app Sora is one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2019. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA and was named a Certified B Corp in 2017. www.overdrive.com

About Kanopy

Kanopy partners with libraries and filmmakers around the globe to give patrons, students and faculty free access to high-quality films that stimulate imagination, promote learning, and spark meaningful conversations. Many of the titles found on Kanopy, including iconic films produced by A24, Criterion Collection, Paramount, PBS and Kino Lorber, are unavailable elsewhere in the library market. Kanopy is used by millions of students and library patrons and is available on all major web, mobile and TV platforms. www.kanopy.com

This press release is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice or an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase of any investment. Investing with any investment firm is suitable only for qualified investors that fully understand the risks of such an investment. L Squared Capital Partners is an investment adviser registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Investments with L Squared Capital Partners are only offered in accordance with applicable securities laws.

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