inspiresport is the industry leading sports development tour operator, offering unrivaled access to world class clubs, coaches, and facilities to take young players of all abilities on extraordinary sporting journeys. The company has been acquired by Portman Travel Group, which is expanding into the sports travel market, providing an exit event for Calculus investors.
Calculus, which invested £2.4m in 2014, has been supporting inspiresport’s growth journey which has seen it more than double in size and employment, diversify its sporting base and geographic reach, and extend its top club partnerships.
The company, which has had to halt its services during 2020 and 2021, has shown great resilience during the pandemic.
Steve Butchart, CEO of inspiresport said: “We’ve grown significantly over the last decade and, whilst the last year has been particularly challenging for the travel industry, to be able to complete this deal is testament to the underlying strength of our business and the hard work of all the team.
The team and I are very excited at the next phase of expansion of inspiresport under our new ownership, which will further enhance our position as market leaders in the school and club sports tour sector, but also accelerate our future development plans by opening up new partners and new sports to add to our current impressive portfolio.”
Alexander Crawford, Co-Head of Investment at Calculus, said: “The pandemic has been extremely challenging for all companies in the travel sector, but in keeping with Calculus’ strategy of backing strong management teams, the inspiresport team demonstrated their abilities over our hold period and particularly over the last year and we are pleased to deliver this exit to our investors. We have immensely enjoyed working with the inspiresport team and wish them the best of luck for their future growth plans.”