Renaissance Learning Is Sold to Hellman & Friedman for $1.1 Billion

It was only last month that Renaissance Learning raised $40 million from a new Google investment fund, valuing the education analysis company at $1 billion.

Now the company is taking on a new owner altogether.

Renaissance plans to announce on Thursday that it has been sold to the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $1.1 billion. Google Capital, the search giant’s investment fund, which led the fund-raising round last month, plans to stay on board as an investor.

Though the transaction appears to have been directly linked to Google Capital’s investment, John J. Lynch Jr., Renaissance’s chief executive, maintains that it was all happenstance.

“We could not be more pleased with the outcome,” Mr. Lynch, who is known as Jack, said by telephone. “It kind of looks like it was orchestrated, but it was actually serendipitous.”

Founded in the Wisconsin basement of Judi and Terry Paul in 1984, Renaissance has grown into a prominent developer of education software. It has increasingly focused on using cloud-based systems to help teachers track students’ progress in classes and develop appropriate learning plans.

The Pauls sold the company, then a publicly traded concern, to Permira for about $455 million in 2011, after a protracted takeover battle. Since then, it has grown, including through acquisitions of start-ups like the e-reader platform Subtext.

Last month, Permira said the company had significantly increased its revenue over the last two years, including a 20 percent gain last year. Renaissance also claims to draw from more than 45 million student assessments each year, covering over one-third of schools in the country.

“We are grateful to have been a part of this dedicated and mission-driven team and proud of the accelerated growth Renaissance has achieved under our ownership,” Nic Volpi and Brian Ruder, two partners at Permira, said in a statement. “We wish Jack and Hellman & Friedman great success as they continue to expand this fantastic business.”

Mr. Lynch said the company had been working to create a “GPS system” that could identify where students were on their learning path.

“We’re doing something fundamental: uncovering what a student knows and what they’re ready to learn,” he said.

The deal also represents the first sale of a company in which Google Capital has invested. So far in its roughly one year of existence, the investment fund has taken stakes in five businesses, including the online survey provider SurveyMonkey, the peer-to-peer lender Lending Club and the credit score monitor Credit Karma.

Mr. Lynch said he first became acquainted with the growth capital fund when Renaissance began working on an education initiative with Google itself late last summer. That led to talks with Google’s nascent investment arm.

Renaissance had already planned on using its investment from last month to expand internationally, including in Britain, which was one of its fastest-growing markets last year. And it will continue to invest in mainstay products like Core Progress.

Mr. Lynch added that while his company had just been sold to a new owner, it could once again become publicly traded one day.

Hellman & Friedman was advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Permira was advised by the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.