Brazil’s online education sector just got a big boost with not one but two investments from Macmillan Digital Education. This week, the organization announced deals with Veduca and Easyaula, both rising startups in the growing Brazilian edtech space.
Veduca is an online video platform that aggregates and curates educational content from top universities around the world. Founded by Carlos Souza, André Tachian, Eduardo Zancul and Marcelo Mejlachowicz, it annotates content with meta tags and adds Portuguese subtitles to render content more accessible to the Brazilian public. Veduca brought in a US$750,000 investment from 500Startups and Mountain do Brasil in October of last year, and it was also named the runner-up of the Fnbox Latin America Startup Challenge.
Easyaula, the other recipient of the Macmillan investment, is an online marketplace for offline education opportunities. The platform seeks to democratize non-traditional education by allowing people to learn virtually anything form anyone, connecting students and educators from all walks of life. A 21212 Digital Accelerator alum, Easyaula traveled to Silicon Valley last year to present its product and meet with investors.
These investments come as part of a broader Macmillan initiative to invest in startups within its Science & Education division, the Digital Education leg of which is concentrated on consumer-focused education. «This is a major step in our intention to provide a catalyst for the next phase of our ambitious plans in Brazil and the wider region. Together with Veduca and Easyaula, we will support and enhance the development of technology-driven education in Brazil. Both brands will play an important role in helping us reach our goal to support people in their life-long learning journey,» commented Matthias Ick, Managing Director of Macmillan Digital Education.
Edtech is one of the fastest-growing niches within Latin America’s technology ecosystem today, and numerous startups are currently active within the sector. With the support of Macmillan, Veduca and Easyaula will certainly have an advantage.
