(Press Release) Amadeus Capital Partners’ global Digital Prosperity Fund has led a Series C funding of US$7m in Descomplica, Brazil’s largest online classroom. Existing investors in the company, including The Social+Capital Partnership, Valor Capital Group, and Valar Ventures, participated in the financing.
Through live video broadcasts and a course catalogue exceeding 15,000 videos, Descomplica’s teachers assist students with nearly all Brazil’s standard high school curriculum. The company’s primary product prepares students for Brazil’s national high school exam, the ENEM (Exame Nacional do Ensino Medio). The largest standardised test in Brazil, ENEM had 9m registrants in 2014. The exam serves as an entrance qualification for most tertiary education in Brazil and qualifies adult students for the high school degree. Government initiatives aimed at increasing the percentage of Brazilians attending university are likely to drive growth for ENEM and supplementary educational services into the next decade.
Descomplica founder, CEO and a former teacher, Marco Fisbhen, says: “Our main competition is non-engagement, so the aim of everything we do is to engage the student. We do this with high-quality and stimulating content, delivered by Brazil’s best teachers. This funding enables us to develop further content, expand the range of our products, and employ different channels for delivering them.”
Descomplica, founded in 2011 and headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, nearly tripled year-on-year revenues in 2014 and expects to do so again in 2015. From the outset, Descomplica’s mantra has been to make education fun, accessible and connected. Employing a freemium subscription model, Descomplica’s products are positioned as high-quality resources at a price far below traditional off-line alternatives.
Descomplica is the only truly national education brand in Brazil, achieving 7m unique students in April and becoming the #1 worldwide Twitter trending topic the day before ENEM 2014 last November.
Amadeus Partner, Pat Burtis, who joins the Descomplica Board of Directors, adds: “Descomplica has accomplished amazing things in the short time since its inception. It has quickly become a trusted and truly national education brand in Brazil and, almost uniquely amongst ed-tech companies, has developed a sustainable business model. We are excited to support the company in its next phase of growth.”
Advisers on this transaction were Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, Koury Lopes Advogados, and Rosewood Due Diligence, for Amadeus; and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP for Descomplica.
The Amadeus IV Digital Prosperity Fund last year led an $8.9m B round funding in Brazilian online price comparison and insurance brokerage business, Bidu, and recently led the equity funding for CCE, a provider of renewable energy services to mobile network operators in India and Africa.