Urban Air Adventure Park joins the club by forming a new umbrella firm—Unleashed Brands—and making its first acquisition, of Snapology. CEO Michael Browning aims to acquire more brands that allow kids to learn, play and grow, the three “silos” under the new platform.
“I’m going to take the platform that had been built for Urban Air, and I’m going to help other founders and management teams plug into this coming out of COVID, so they don’t have to rebuild their teams,” he said.
Conversations with other business owners during the pandemic, when everything was shut down, as well as the struggle for himself and his wife and other parents to find activities for their kids, served as inspiration.
He pitched the idea to his private equity backers, MPK Equity Partners that includes the Texas-based Perot family as investors, and they were on board. Browning believes the combination of private equity money plus a management team to run it and his background as a founder will allow Unleashed to compete in one of the hottest sectors for franchise M&A this year.
“The beautiful thing about Unleashed is, we have all of the money that private equity has. We can pay great prices for great brands, great founders, great management teams. But what we have that private equity doesn’t have, is the platform,” he said. “That’s why we’re winning right now in the space.”
He called Snapology “the world’s best STEAM brand,” referring to science, technology, engineering, arts and math. During the summer, they beta-tested operating Snapology camps in existing Urban Air trampoline and adventure parks. “We got a great response” from Urban Air franchisees, he said, who see Snapology as a way to generate new revenue in the same real estate.
Each brand will maintain its own identity, he said, with Snapology’s co-founder Laura Coe as president. “As a founder, I relate to them a lot better than traditional private equity, because I’ve founded something starting in a garage. They understand that I understand, and my team understands.”
Urban Air has 154 parks open plus 85 parks sold but not opened, he said. Snapology has 86 units. Browning is seeking as many as “eight to 10 companies under the umbrella by the end of 2022.We’re having some great conversations.”
He’s not the only one. As tracked in Franchise Times Dealmakers, deals in the kids education and entertainment space are hot. Tutor Doctor bought Code Wiz recently; Eagle Merchant Partners bought Code Ninjas; LaunchLife International bought Engineering for Kids; Westerly & Elmsley family offices bought Lightbridge Academy, to name just a few.
The formation of umbrella companies is also a thing in franchise M&A: Propelled Brands, WOWorks, Threshold Brands and Stellar Brands join Unleashed Brands in making their recent debut.
