London, 23 September, 2026: ICP Educare, the Innervation Capital-backed early years group, has secured a further £15.5 million of committed facilities from OakNorth, the digital bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, taking its total facilities to £40 million, with an additional £10 million accordion available to support future growth.
The increased facility will further support ICP Educare’s strategic plan to deliver high quality education and care in under-served, under-penetrated areas of the UK market and grow to 20 settings and £12.5 million of pro forma run-rate EBITDA in FY27, combined with continued investment across its existing portfolio.
Raising quality is at the heart of this strategy. ICP Educare’s industry leading Net Promoter Scores and its Group’s proprietary Quality Plan are delivering top quartile performance in the majority of acquired settings within 24 months of acquisition.
The increased facility follows a period of market leading performance for the Group. ICP Educare is expected to deliver £8.5 million of EBITDA over the next twelve months from 14 settings with over 1,400 registered places following its latest acquisition in North Yorkshire, due to complete later this week.
Dominic Harrison MBE, Executive Chair of ICP Educare, said: “We are delighted to have OakNorth’s continued backing. This increased facility gives us the firepower to pursue ICP Educare’s growth ambitions, and our results so far show that our strategy and operational expertise are delivering leading quality education and care. Every setting we acquire benefits from our proven model, and that makes an everyday difference to the children, families and educators in the communities we serve.”
Commenting on the increase facility and more widely, Stuart Blair – Senior Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth said: “ICP Educare is a high-quality, well-run early years group, led by a team with deep experience of building and improving nursery businesses and with a track record of more than 50 transactions in the early years sector. We’re pleased to extend our support with a facility that gives them the capacity for their growth ambitions and we look forward to supporting the team to deliver this.”
ICP Educare was launched in February 2024 by the leadership team behind ICP Nurseries and Cresswell Nurseries, which together formed ICP Education. Its aim is to create the leading early years provider to underserved and underpenetrated markets within the UK’s £12 billion early years sector.
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Notes to editors
About OakNorth
Launched in September 2015, OakNorth is the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. It was founded to address the persistent funding gap facing lower mid-market businesses – a segment that accounts for a significant share of economic output yet remains underserved by traditional banks.
To date, OakNorth has provided over $22bn in lending to thousands of entrepreneur-led businesses across the UK and US, supporting the creation of more than 70,000 jobs and generating more than $53bn in economic value. Throughout multiple economic cycles, the bank has maintained a highly disciplined approach to credit, delivering performance metrics that place it among the top 1% of commercial banks globally.
It is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Visit www.oaknorth.co.uk for more information.