Initiative & Finance takes majority stake in Opus Formation
What's the deal? French private equity firm Initiative & Finance has acquired a majority stake in Opus Formation, a vocational training company, through its I&F PME IV fund. The deal was made alongside co-investors Altur EdTrain and InnovaFonds. Opus Formation's chief executive Franck Lavis, who has led the company since 2011, is reinvesting significantly alongside five members of the management team.
The I&F PME IV fund completed its final close in March 2026 at more than €240M (roughly $271M). This marks the fund's fifth investment.
Opus Formation, founded in 2004 and based in Paris, Lyon, and Reims, delivers training programmes ranging from vocational certificates to master's-level qualifications. It generates around €20M in revenue, serves nearly 3,000 students, and places more than 1,000 young people into their first jobs each year.
Why now? The company primarily serves fast-food restaurant chains struggling with recruitment and retention — some face annual staff turnover exceeding 100%. Opus Formation's hybrid model combines hands-on training in professional kitchens and retail spaces with recruitment support and operational coaching, offering a structural answer to chronic labour shortages in the sector.
"It's exactly the type of positioning — specialised, measurable, and rooted in real-world needs — that we look for in our investments," said Arnaud Mendelsohn, managing director at Initiative & Finance.
What could go wrong? Opus Formation's revenue is heavily concentrated in the fast-food sector, leaving it vulnerable to shifts in that industry's hiring patterns or economic downturns that reduce expansion plans. Scaling nationally — as Lavis has signalled — will also require replicating a hands-on, facility-intensive model across new cities, which carries execution risk.
The signal: The deal reflects growing investor appetite for education and workforce-training businesses that address structural labour shortages across Europe. Initiative & Finance, founded in 1984, manages roughly €800M and has completed 350 growth-capital and buyout transactions. Its latest fund's focus on French small and mid-sized enterprises suggests continued confidence in niche, operationally anchored businesses that solve tangible market problems — even in sectors not typically associated with high-growth investing.
Read more: finyear.com
