Brazil-based edtech company Descomplica secured $84.5m in a funding round yesterday co-led by telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank and investment fund Invus Opportunities.
Valor Capital Group, Península Participações, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Amadeus Capital Partners, Intercorp Peru and private investor David Evans, the guitarist of rock band U2 also known as Edge, joined the round.
Descomplica runs an online university that offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
The company is looking to add more than 100 staff to its current headcount of 600 and will also use the money to expand its offering both organically and through acquisitions of complementary technologies and other institutions.
Descomplica raised $17m in funding in 2017, according to a regulatory filing, following a $7m series C round led by Amadeus Capital Partners and backed by Social+Capital Partnership, Valor Capital Group and Valar Ventures two years earlier.
Social+Capital led a $5m series B round in 2014, with participation from Valar Ventures, Valor Capital Group, 500 Startups and assorted angel investors. The same institutional investors had provided equity financing pegged at $2m to $3m in 2012.
Undisclosed investors had injected $60,000 in funding earlier in 2012, according to a securities document.
