Cogna Educação, the Brazil-based educational services provider formerly known as Kroton Educacional, will launch a corporate venture capital arm in 2020 called Cogna Ventures, it has announced.
The company’s investor relations officer, Carlos Lazar, will head Cogna Ventures, which will focus on innovative and disruptive opportunities in different segments of the education business. The size of its fund has not been disclosed.
Rodrigo Galindo, CEO of Cogna Educação, was quoted as saying at an event in São Paulo: “This venture capital fund will invest in minority stakes and partnerships, always seeking disruptive solutions that might help one of the four companies under the holding.”
The news comes at a time when Cogna Educação is rebranding and restructuring itself in order to participate in open innovation in a bid to seek out new technologies to achieve digitisation.
The new entity will have four subsidiaries: Kroton, which manages tertiary education initiatives; Saber, which focuses on primary and secondary education businesses; Platos, whose main targets are corporate customers pursuing higher education; and Vasta Educação, which will design learning schemes for primary and secondary schools.
Cogna has also formed four advisory committees covering audit and risk, people and governance, finance and M&A, and strategy and innovation respectively. They will work together with the board of directors beginning next quarter.
