- It is one of the largest rounds in an ed-tech firm in Latin America, amid an accelerating demand for tech talent in the region;
- Digital House will focus on evolving its digital training platform, as well as consolidating a two-year technological training program, designed together with Mercado Libre and Globant.
Buenos Aires-based edtech Digital House announced on Thursday that it has raised a $50 million round led by Mercado Libre and Argentina‘s technology firm Globant. The round was co-led by the global private equity manager Riverwood Capital and the Latin American early-stage investment fund Kaszek.
Digital House offers remote training on software development, e-commerce, digital marketing, data science, and cybersecurity, besides executive programs and in-company courses.
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It is one of the largest rounds in a Latin American edtech firm, amid an accelerating demand for tech talent in the region. The COVID-19 pandemic made e-learning inevitable, and it has been a crowded market for the sector. Recently, Brazilian UOL EdTech raised a round from SoftBank Latin America Fund and acquired an online study platform.
Digital House also grew amid the pandemic, as Sebastian Mackinlay, Digital House’s CEO in Brazil, told LABS. “By the end of 2020, we trained nearly 63,000 students and the expectation for 2021 is to train 42,000 more students, closing 2021 with more than 100,000 trained students.”
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The startup says the new round further reinforces its mission of democratizing access to high-quality and scalable tech training in Latin America, as well as connecting new talent to jobs in the field.
According to Mackinlay, proceeds will be used to evolve its digital training platform, content and program developing, to consolidate its 2-year technological training program designed together with Mercado Libre and Globant (the Certified Tech Developer program), besides strategic M&A.
The firm says the partnership with two of the region’s leading technology employers will allow the edtech to continue to evolve its courses to meet the specific skills required for technology professionals.
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Digital House currently operates in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, and it is planning to expand to new countries. Today, 50% of Digital House’s clients are in Brazil, 30% in Argentina and 20% in another Latin America’s countries. “The biggest growth is in Brazil,” says Mackinlay.
“In 2021 we will continue to focus on the evolution of our digital training platform, on the consolidation of the Certified Tech Developer, our full 2-year training, and growth in Latin America.”
