Swim schools are mission-critical, margin-rich, under-consolidated, and sticky - a rare combination in a single asset class.

  • Mission + Margin → Life-saving impact (water safety & survival skills) paired with 15–25% EBITDA margins and predictable recurring revenue.

  • Resilient + Scalable → Non-discretionary spend, high capacity utilization (100s of kids per pool), and multi-year family lifetime value.

  • Fragmented + Undervalued → Thousands of independents with no succession plan; buy at 4–6x EBITDA, exit at 8–10x as consolidation accelerates.

What Makes Swim Schools Different

1. Mission + Margin in One Asset Class

Swim schools deliver both. They save lives (water safety, youth resilience) and produce 15–25% EBITDA margins with strong cashflow on annual recurring revenue models, decreasing customer acquisition costs with time and under-explored opportunities to expand wallet share.

2. Recession-Resistant, Non-Discretionary Spend

Parents cut vacations before they cut swim lessons. Swimming is viewed as a life skill, not a hobby — which means revenue is far more resilient than other fitness and youth-education related services. That makes this category closer to healthcare in durability than typical “youth activities.”

3. Unusual Market Fragmentation

The swim school space is still wildly fragmented. Thousands of independents are run by aging founders with no succession plan. There is an acquisition arbitrage window that will be closing fast as PE platforms consolidate more regional swim school networks.

4. Community Trust = Customer Stickiness

Parents stick with a swim school for years — starting with infants, through toddlers, into elementary school. That creates 5–8 years of wallet share per child, often multiplied across siblings. Customer LTV is higher and more predictable than many youth sports or enrichment categories.

5. Parents Would Do Anything for This

What’s one outcome parents want for their children you can’t manufacture?

Character.

Learn-to-swim skills are foundational to one of the most grueling and wholesome sports in the world: competitive swimming. Name another sport that requires such total immersion, sensory deprivation, and boredom tolerance. No balls. No equipment. No distractions. Just you and your body, you and your mind, building self-reliance, independence, and mental toughness as you power through lactic acid buildup and increase breath control and pain tolerance every single practice. It’s the best athletic antidote to AI, screens and social media in a single activity. Swimming builds character. What would you give?

Emerge One Partners will build a bridge between the skills and the sport of swimming, equipping our portfolio of swim schools to sell intangible value to parents on priceless outcomes for their children.

Case studies

  • Buy-and-build: Youth Enrichment Brands buys Streamline Brands (2022) after Quad Partners backs roll-up of SafeSpash, SwimLabs, Swimtastic and Saf-T-Swim, building one of the largest swim school platforms in North America to date.

  • Industry Roll-Up: Morgan Stanley Capital Partners invests in Emler Swim School (2022) to acquire leading independent swim schools nationwide. Heritage Capital Group gets AQUAfin bought by Emler (2024).

  • Proven playbooks: L5 Capital Partners buys Big Blue Swim School (2017) to expand franchise model with tech-enabled progress tracking and scheduling.

  • Geographic Expansion: Prairie Capital buys highly local Foss Swim School (2018) to replicate successful unit economics in new markets.

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