Delivered returns for investors and impact for special education students

TeachTown provides schools with a digital learning platform dedicated to improving the academic, behavioral, and adaptive functioning of students with disabilities from Pre-K through 12th grade. During Double Impact’s 2020-2024 ownership, TeachTown invested in product development and scaled its salesforce. This resulted in significant business growth, expanded access and achievement for learners, and relief for educators seeking innovative solutions.

Impact thesis

Over 7 million students—nearly 15% of the public-school population—receive special education services.¹U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (May 2024). National Center for Education Statistics. Students with Disabilities. Retrieved April 1, 2025. Often, students with disabilities have limited access to appropriate educational resources, and special education teachers are forced to customize general education materials to meet their students’ individual needs.

To address this, TeachTown builds curriculum and software specifically tailored to the unique needs of special education students, whom traditional curriculum providers largely overlook.

Opportunity and investment

Double Impact’s investment in TeachTown provided an opportunity to scale a business in the underserved special education market, one in which we have investment experience.

Through diligence, we determined that TeachTown’s solutions were differentiated, built on a proven Applied Behavior Analysis-based pedagogy, and endorsed by passionate customer advocates. Despite the products’ effectiveness, TeachTown had limited geographic reach, low brand recognition, and served elementary school grades only.

“TeachTown is a strong example of our partnership model in action: working closely with management to drive business performance while expanding access to high-quality, evidence-based instruction for students who need it most.”

Todd Cook / Partner / Bain Capital

The opportunity to accelerate growth through product expansion was clear to our team. In December 2020, Double Impact acquired a majority stake in TeachTown. The founding management team chose to partner with us due to our strong alignment with TeachTown’s mission and impact, as well as our depth of knowledge and experience in the sector and in special education, specifically. In addition, we believe our track record as a hands-on investor, along with our resources to support leadership and infrastructure investments, positioned us as the right partner for rapid scale.

Value creation

From the start, the goal for our partnership with TeachTown was centered on building a experienced team delivering practical tools for students, teachers, and parents. Key areas for driving value included:

Building a foundation for growth

Immediately after we invested in TeachTown, we began preparing the company for dynamic growth. This involved hiring key executives and investing in new tools, resources, and capabilities to bolster TeachTown’s sales and marketing strategy.

“Through our partnership with Bain Capital, we were able to expand access to our educational solutions, invest in a strong team, launch innovative products, and establish the infrastructure and processes to support our long-term growth.”¹ These endorsements are provided by certain CEOs and or founders of investments held by certain investment vehicles advised by Bain Capital affiliate investment advisers. None of these CEOs and or founders were directly compensated for providing these endorsements, however, the funds have made investments into such CEOs and or founders’ companies. As a result of this investment, a conflict of interest exists because the CEOs and or founders have an incentive to make positive statements about Bain Capital and their experiences with Bain Capital to maintain the goodwill with Bain Capital.

Richard Becker / CEO / TeachTown

Expanding product line

During our ownership, we partnered with TeachTown to expand the company’s adapted core curriculum product, enCORE, to serve middle school and high school students, which was completed in 2022. Prior to our exit, the company launched an enCORE pilot for pre-K students.

The team continues to develop new tools and resources to support teachers and students. For example, TeachTown launched Benchmark Assessments, a full suite of assessments that allow teachers to monitor students’ progress throughout the year and provide data-driven, personalized instruction.

Strengthening impact best practices

Double Impact worked closely with the management team to implement best practices from our impact playbook. This included launching the company’s first High Performing Organization (HPO) survey, driving annual improvement on the B Impact Assessment, and integrating impact targets into the management team’s compensation structure.

Improving student outcomes

Furthering learning outcomes for students is core to achieving TeachTown’s mission and driving its continued growth. Before our investment, our Double Impact team researched the effectiveness of TeachTown’s original supplemental curriculum solution and found that students experienced higher gains across all tested dimensions, including social skills, language, and shape identification, versus a control group. We partnered with TeachTown to continue and improve the tracking of student outcomes across key products.

Next chapter

TeachTown has grown tremendously since its 2003 founding and, at the time of Double Impact’s exit, supported over 100,000 students annually with differentiated products and a purpose-built curriculum.

In June 2024, Double Impact and TeachTown announced its next chapter for growth through an acquisition by L Squared Capital Partners. L Squared has dedicated education-sector expertise and is committed to continuous investment in the company’s impact goals, driving positive outcomes for students and educators.