Gazelle Finance achieved its fourth exit in 2021 with the sale of the private K-12 Georgian-Austrian School “Pesvebi”, to Georgia Capital’s education business company. Pesvebi was one of Gazelle Finance’s first investments in a wholly woman owned business and should have an important demonstration effect in the Georgian market that gender lens investing is good business practice.
Gazelle Finance provided critical growth capital in 2018 to Pesvebi, at a time when there was limited financing available for the private sector segment of the education market. This infusion of capital enabled the school to complete a facilities expansion project and the development of a European styled curriculum based on Austrian teaching standards certified the state government. The facility improvements included a swimming pool, athletic facilities and upgrade in classrooms and other teaching and administrative facilities to support up to an enrollment level of 1200 students. This investment was then followed by additional follow-on investments and technical capacity building interventions up until the present, including: ESG advisory services, fire safety and first aid training, branding, and marketing strategy development, senior management training, the development of a native English language speaker-led ESL program, as well as bridge financing to provide emergency COVID resiliency support. In addition, Gazelle Finance provided a grant that was funded by the USAID Business Development Service Program to cover the salary of the School Principal.
“Gazelle Finance provided critical support to Pesvebi right before the start of the 2018 academic year, which enabled us to open the school on time with dramatically upgraded facilities,” said Manana Gvirishvili, Owner and Principal of Pesvebi. “The combination of this capital and the technical support from Gazelle Finance positioned the school to take the next step with a new investor with ambitious plan to further improve the value proposition for our students and their families”.
“Gazelle Finance is very pleased to see Pesvebi reach a new stage in its development and join Georgia Capital’s education business”,” said Natia Janelidze, CIO Georgia for Gazelle Finance. “Georgia Capital is the leading investor in private education in Georgia and is rapidly developing its business in K-12 private schools throughout the country that can provide high quality education across all price segments.”
Gazelle Finance
Gazelle Finance is an investment company, that finances high-growth, small and medium size enterprises in the Eurasia Region. The company seeks to identify gaps and barriers in frontier capital markets and provide a combined financing and business advisory solution to ambitious entrepreneurs. By investing and partnering with these entrepreneurs, Gazelle Finance helps local markets and economies to expand, while generating commercial returns for its investors.
Georgian-Austrian School Pesvebi
The Georgian-Austrian School Pesvebi LLC is a woman managed business. In addition to this, 90% of the employees at the school are females. The principal of the company is Manana Gvirjishvili, a former teacher of Georgian language and literature [1978-1996]. Since the privatization of the state-owned public school #187 in 2011, Manana Gvirjishvili is the principal of Georgian-Austrian School Pesvebi LLC. The school covers both primary and secondary education.
