Inverness Graham (“IGI”), a Philadelphia-based buyout firm focused on acquiring innovative companies where technology is transforming traditional industry, announced today that it has acquired Axcel Learning (“Axcel”), a leading online professional education, certification, and test preparation platform for end-markets where industry certification exams are critical for employment and career progression.
Founded in 2021, Axcel has effectively scaled into a leading provider of certification-focused education, operating five well-recognized online learning brands. The company’s hybrid learning model—integrating asynchronous content, live virtual instructor-led training, and AI-driven personalization—delivers industry-leading exam pass rates for essential professional credentials. By pairing proprietary content with a robust learning platform, Axcel helps address skilled labor shortages and regulatory certification requirements across several high-growth industries. To date, Axcel has served over 2 million professionals and maintains a comprehensive library of more than 11,000 hours of proprietary educational content.
“Axcel represents an exceptional platform investment in the rapidly growing professional education sector,” said Michael Morrissey, Managing Partner at Inverness Graham. “Building on our experience scaling platforms such as Kalkomey and Syntrio, we believe Axcel is well positioned to benefit from Inverness Graham’s Strategic Platform Build approach and our deep operational history and heritage. We are excited to partner with the Axcel team to drive accelerated growth in its next chapter.”
With several recent successful exits of tech-enabled services and software businesses including Concord Servicing, Syntrio, Swipeclock, and Kalkomey, the acquisition of Axcel extends Inverness Graham’s experience in a targeted investment focus area.
Inverness Graham will support Axcel as the company executes its strategy for organic and acquisitive growth in the attractive markets it serves today, including the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) and Healthcare industries.
McDermott Will & Schulte served as legal counsel to Inverness Graham. Houlihan Lokey served as exclusive financial advisor to Axcel. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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