Redsquid's £8m EdTech Bet: Why This MSP Just Made Schools Cool Again

When Managed Services Meet Multiplication Tables

Borehamwood-based managed service provider Redsquid just completed its largest acquisition to date, snapping up Partnership Education for an undisclosed sum. The Cranfield-based education specialist brings £8m in revenue, 80 staff, and over 170 schools into Redsquid's growing empire.

It's their 16th deal. Sixteen. I built something like this in 2007—well, sort of. We managed five Bluetooth campaigns before realising schools weren't quite ready for hyperlocal marketing on Nokia 3210s. Cost me twenty grand and a perfectly good Friday afternoon.

But here's what's different about 2026: schools aren't just buying IT support anymore. They're buying survival.

The New Economics of Educational Emergency

The numbers tell a story that'd make any MSP reach for their chequebook. Government cyber security surveys show 60% of secondary schools suffered attacks in the past year. Primary schools are at 44%—one point above the business average. The schools MIS market has imploded spectacularly.

ParentPay's SIMS platform has collapsed from 72% market share in 2021 to just 30% as of January 2026. That's not market correction—that's market failure. Multi-Academy Trusts are scrambling to consolidate suppliers, desperate for integrated platforms that actually work.

Sohin Raithatha, Redsquid's founder, positioned this perfectly: "Partnership Education brings exceptional people, expertise and shared values into the group." Translation: we've just bought ourselves a monopoly on institutional panic.

Product-Market Fit Meets Playground Politics

What Partnership Education offers isn't revolutionary—it's managed IT services for schools. But the positioning is flawless. They've built trust in a sector where trust matters more than tech specs. When your network goes down during GCSEs, you don't want a chatbot. You want Matt Perrett picking up the phone.

Perrett, Partnership Education's former MD, becomes Redsquid's Director of Education. Smart move. Education isn't like other verticals—it's relationship-driven, trust-based, and absolutely allergic to disruption during term time. You can't growth hack your way into a Multi-Academy Trust.

The B Corp Advantage

Here's the kicker: Partnership Education was majority-owned by an Employee Ownership Trust. The staff voted "overwhelmingly" to join Redsquid. That's not just due diligence—that's cultural due diligence. Schools buy from people they trust, and people they trust don't usually work for faceless corporations.

Redsquid's B Corp certification suddenly makes sense. It's not virtue signalling—it's competitive advantage. When you're selling to institutions funded by taxpayers, your values become part of your value proposition.

What This Really Means

This acquisition signals something bigger than consolidation. It's about timing. The government's pushing AI tutoring programmes while simultaneously warning about bias and safeguarding risks. Oak National Academy is offering free educational content, resetting pricing expectations across the sector.

Commercial edtech vendors like Chalkie and MagicSchool AI now face government-subsidised competition. Meanwhile, MSPs like Redsquid are positioning themselves as the infrastructure layer underneath it all.

I've seen this movie before—during the dot-com crash, the companies selling picks and shovels outlasted the companies mining fool's gold. Partnership Education isn't mining educational innovation. They're selling the infrastructure that makes innovation possible.

The Founder's Verdict

Acquiring Partnership Education isn't just Redsquid's biggest deal—it's their smartest. They're not betting on edtech disruption. They're betting on educational desperation.

Schools need secure, reliable IT more than they need the next breakthrough learning platform. Multi-Academy Trusts want suppliers who understand governance, compliance, and the brutal realities of public sector procurement.

Redsquid's now positioned to benefit from both sides: the chaos created by failed platforms like SIMS, and the opportunity created by government investment in educational AI.

That's not disruption. That's evolution. And in a sector where evolution beats revolution every time, Redsquid just bought themselves pole position.