(peHUB) November 7, 2011 – Open English announced that Nicolás Szekasy has joined the company’s Board of Directors in connection with an investment in Open English by Kaszek Ventures. Szekasy, a managing partner of Kaszek Ventures, was formally the CFO of MercadoLibre, Latin America’s largest online commerce and payments platform.
During his ten years at MercadoLibre, he successfully led the company’s $333 million initial public offering (IPO); its current market value is over $2.5 billion. Throughout his career, Szekasy has closed merger and acquisition deals and issued debt and equity capital exceeding $2 billion. He currently sits on the board of several Internet companies in the region.
“We’re very fortunate to have someone with so much relevant experience join our team, no one knows the Latin American Internet space like Nicolás Szekasy,” said Andres Moreno, Open English’s CEO. “His know-how and talent will surely be a huge asset as we continue our development in the region.”
Earlier this year Szekasy and MercadoLibre co-founder Hernán Kazah launched Kaszek Ventures, the leading Latin American venture capital firm investing in high-impact tech entrepreneurs. Kaszek’s investment in Open English’s recent B-1 round brings the online language school’s total capital raised to over $12 million.
“We believe that the Latin American market is ripe for more successful pan-regional plays, and that Open English has all of the elements to be a leader in their sector. They have already achieved very impressive growth,” Szekasy said. “I am very excited to be involved with Open English and look forward to helping the company expand its operations.”
Open English is currently available to both Spanish and Portuguese-speaking students around the world.
About Open English
Open English, based in Miami, is an online school created to reinvent the English learning experience. Through live language instruction with native English speaking teachers and multi-media learning content, all provided over the internet, Open English empowers students on their customized path to English fluency.
About Kaszek Ventures
Kaszek Ventures is the leading Latin American venture capital firm investing in high-impact tech entrepreneurs. Led by Nicolas Szekasy, MercadoLibre’s former CFO, and Hernan Kazah, MercadoLibre’s co-founder, the firm actively supports its portfolio companies through value-added strategic guidance and hands-on operational help, leveraging its partners’ successful entrepreneurial backgrounds and extensive network.