Platzi, a professional education platform in Latin America, has raised $60 million (R955 million) in Series B funding led by Prosus, one of the largest technology investors in the world.
Existing investor Foundation Capital co-invested in this round along with YCombinator, 500 Startups, FJ Labs, FundersClub, Hans Tung from GGV and Darian Shirazi from Gradient.
Platzi will use the fresh funds to expand its educational offering in Portuguese, English and Spanish, ramp up its offering for businesses and continue building strategic partnerships with tech giants and governments.
Founded by Freddy Vega and Christian Van Der Henst, Platzi aims to close the talent gap of technology professionals in Latin America as an effective education platform for lifelong learners, regardless of their background or prior skills.
As a pioneer in edtech in Latin America, thousands of companies use Platzi’s platform every day to upskill their workforce, along with more than 2.5 million individual students starting their careers in technology within the Platzi community.
The Platzi community is what sets it apart from other education platforms. The learning experience of the company is designed to make students actively engage and participate with teachers and peers, at scale.
As a result, students acquire professional skills to build their own companies or land their dream jobs. Platzi students have built more than 40 startups that have raised over $1 million with 20 companies that have received funding from Y Combinator.
“Our methodology was created to help students thrive by learning tech skills, soft skills, language training and also enable them to build a network of peers so they can get a job as soon as possible or create their own companies. In addition, we give learners the tools they need, and community elements. In a region of massive inequality and lack of opportunities like Latin America, this is especially important. Every day we see students going from the minimum wage of $300 dollars a month to 10X after studying at Platzi for 12 months,” explained Freddy Vega, Platzi CEO.
The Prosus investment is the first for the company in an edtech platform based in Latin America. Since 2016, in vocational training alone, Prosus has built a significant portfolio, with investments in Stack Overflow, Skillsoft, Udemy, GoodHabitz, and Codecademy.
“There is a large deficit of tech-focused graduates in Latin America, despite a massive need for corporates to increase their overall technical staff significantly over the next decade. Traditional educational institutions are not equipped to meet the evolving needs of technology students and employers, and Platzi is filling an important gap in the market,” said Denis Pedreira, Latin America Investments, Prosus.
“With most quality online coding courses available only in English, Platzi is disrupting the sector for future LatAm learners offering coding and technical skills courses in Spanish and Portuguese. Already a leader in Spanish-speaking countries, the team’s execution has enabled an impressive footprint across the region and the company is positioned well for future expansion.”
Platzi’s track record has been impressive. The company has more than doubled its student base year over year, every year since its founding in 2014.
“Our students become lifetime learners and our platform allows students to connect to peers outside their personal networks, change careers, build their startups and find jobs.” Vega continued.
The educational content on Platzi is constantly refreshed with new courses added or updated each month. The Platzi platform consists of thousands of courses including Web development, programming, digital marketing, English, cryptocurrencies, soft skills and more. Large Tech companies choose Platzi to teach Spanish speakers about their latest updates.
Platzi currently has offices in Mexico City, Bogota and San Francisco with over 200 employees. The company plans to use the new funding to hire across product development, content development and sales.
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