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HelioCampus Acquires ABC Insights, a Leading Higher Education Benchmarking Consortium

Companies combine to become the premier source for colleges and universities seeking strategic decision support for sustainability and institutional transformation initiatives

Sep 15, 2020

HelioCampus, a technology-enabled services company that provides colleges and universities with the decision support services they need to operate more strategically and sustainably, today announced the acquisition of ABC Insights, a leading higher education benchmarking consortium that helps its members better understand their administrative spend levels and compare to peer institutions to direct and shape financial decision making. The acquisition bolsters HelioCampus’ ability to help higher education improve institutional health across academic and administrative functions with benchmarking, data analytics and decision support.

“In addition to sharing similar campus origins at the University System of Maryland and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively, HelioCampus and ABC Insights share a commitment to helping institutions operate more strategically,” said HelioCampus CEO, Darren Catalano. “Together, we aspire to become the most trusted source and advisor to higher education by helping them leverage their data to accelerate their path to financial sustainability.”

HelioCampus provides strategic decision support and insights for institutions to grow resources, maximize returns of academic programs and optimize administrative spend. The acquisition of ABC Insights enables HelioCampus to expand client resources and service offerings to include:

*Enhanced Financial Decision Support: *Adding cost benchmarking augments HelioCampus’ focus on decision support and financial sustainability and will offer clients the ability to understand their staffing intensity relative to peer institutions and navigate new realities using reliable data.

*Accelerated COVID Response: *The newly combined company will offer cross-campus visibility into academic and administrative efficiencies that will help institutions take decisive action and respond to current challenges while creating opportunities for the future.

Expanded Community of Practice: The joining of HelioCampus clients and ABC Insights members offers an even larger network of peer institutions for best practice sharing, networking and other engagement opportunities.

"A dedication to improving the financial sustainability of higher education by helping universities be more efficient and effective is in the DNA of both of our organizations and makes us a perfect match," said Steven Beisser, President and Chief Operating Officer of ABC Insights. "By joining the HelioCampus family, we are able to dramatically increase the ways we support universities today through the combination of our complementary services and tomorrow as we work together to develop additional offerings."

HelioCampus plans to expand its capabilities and core offerings from a client service, product development and technical standpoint, with no interruption to current services and support being provided to clients of either company. The HelioCampus headquarters will remain in Bethesda, Maryland, with plans to grow its footprint in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Darren Catalano will continue to lead the combined company as CEO. ABC Insights’ co-founders will be assuming new leadership roles at HelioCampus: Steven Beisser will serve as VP of Operations, Paul Friga as VP of Strategy and Joe Rice as VP of Technology.

  • About Pamlico
  • About ABC Insights
  • About HelioCampus

About Pamlico

Pamlico Capital is a private equity firm founded in 1988 that invests in growing middle market companies in North America. Pamlico Capital seeks control-oriented growth equity investments of up to $200 million alongside founders and proven leaders in its target industries: communications, healthcare IT, information services, software and tech-enabled services. The firm, based in Charlotte, NC, has assets under management of approximately $3.3 billion. For additional information, please visit www.pamlicocapital.com.