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"The ed-tech space is heating up all around the world,\u00A0and this is also true in Latin America, where online startups have the much-needed potential to disrupt education and democratize it.\r\n\r\nThis isn't only about replicating successful US business models, as many of these would be useless in the region, Educabilia's CEO Daniel Abadi explains:\r\nThere are many education-related problems we don't have in Latin America, such\u00A0as higher-education costs and student loans (free public universities\u00A0are widespread throughout most of Latin America), or book rental needs (we use\u00A0lots of photocopies instead), so there's less need for startups like\u00A0Chegg.\r\nConversely, several Latin American startups have developed platforms that are tailored for the region's needs, for instance by focusing on adult learning and including SMS content.\u00A0Here are 9 examples you should know, in alphabetical order:\r\nAkdemia\r\nAkdemia\u00A0is an online service aimed at improving school management and communication between teachers, parents and students. Founded in Venezuela a few months ago, it initially targeted private schools in its home country, and has now hired country managers in Brazil and Mexico to expand across Latin America.\r\n\r\nAccording to its founder and CEO, Juan Lagrange, Akdemia's goal is to reach $110k in revenue by the third quarter of 2013. Its business model is based on the management fee it charges schools on a monthly basis, depending on the number of students they manage via the platform.\r\n\r\nThe startup recently graduated from\u00A0Telef\u00F3nica\u2019s accelerator, Wayra, which selected it as one of the 17 teams that took part in its first Global Demo Day in Miami last December.\r\nDescomplica\r\n\r\nDescomplica\u00A0is a Brazilian online learning startup that leverages video classes to help users\u00A0prepare for entrance examinations. Website aside, it has adapted to the realities of the Brazilian market, and partnered\u00A0with mobile operator\u00A0Vivo\u00A0to offer SMS lessons around different verticals.\r\n\r\nAs we reported last December, it\u00A0raised investment from several high-profile funds to\u00A0expand its platform by hiring staff, reinforcing its infrastructure and building new content. Current backers include\u00A0Peter Thiel\u2019s Valar Ventures, Brazil-focused Valor Capital Group and EL Area, Dave McClure\u2019s 500Startups, and Palo Alto-based Social+Capital Partnership.\r\nEasyaula\r\nEasyaula\u00A0is a Brazilian marketplace for offline classes, which students can pay online.\u00A0The startup recently graduated from Brazilian-American accelerator 21212, where it was mentored by Adriana Cisneros from\u00A0the Cisneros Group of Companies (see our previous interview).\r\n\r\nEarlier this week, we learned that it had raised capital from\u00A0Macmillan Digital Education, a VC fund which was launched in January 2012 by traditional educational publisher Macmillan to make strategic investments in the consumer online education market.\u00A0While Brazilian platforms such as\u00A0Beved and\u00A0N\u00F3s.vc operate in the same field as Easyaula, this new partnership \u00A0has the potential to let it leapfrog its competitors.\r\nEducabilia\r\n\r\n\r\nAbove-mentioned\u00A0Educabilia\u00A0shares similarities with Easyaula in its focus on user-generated offline classes, but it also works on grouping existing informal classes in each of the cities where it operates.\r\n\r\nThis Argentine startup is currently taking part in\u00A0Wayra Argentina's acceleration program, and has already raised angel investment from Marco Giberti's firm Vesuvio Ventures (see our previous post). Launched in March 2012, it boasts a track record of 7,000 published classes in 10 countries.\r\nOja.la\r\nOja.la\u00A0is a marketplace for online classes that launched which kickstarted its operations in November 2011 with an inaugural lesson by Latin American investor Wences Casares (see our article).\r\n\r\nOja.la's content focuses on a specific niche: Latin American aspiring entrepreneurs and techies who are keen to learn about topics such as app development and community management. Classes are in Spanish, and cost anywhere between $30 and $180.\r\n\r\nOriginally from Colombia, the startup was selected to participate in Start-Up Chile's fourth incubation round. According to its Venezuelan co-founder, Hernan Aracena, it reached the milestone of 1,000 paying customers by September 2012. Competing offers include Mejorando.la, a conference series and podcast brand\u00A0that also hosts online classes in Spanish about Internet and tech.\r\nOpen English\r\nMiami-based online learning startup\u00A0Open English is arguably one of Latin America's top startup success stories, with a 12-month English learning program that connects native teachers with over 50,000 students from 20 countries.\r\n\r\nAs we reported in July 2012, the company raised one of 2012's largest investments in an education startup, with a\u00A0$43 million series C round led by Insight Venture Partners and backed by\u00A0Redpoint Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners\u00A0and Kaszek Ventures.\r\nQM\u00E1gico\r\nBrazilian ed-tech startup\u00A0QM\u00E1gico\u00A0was the\u00A0winner at Startup World: Brazil\u00A0competition last year. While it initially started as\u00A0a free platform with custom videos and exercises, it has become a\u00A0subscription-based product with a more sophisticated software to attend the needs of schools and teachers.\r\n\r\nIn practical terms, teachers can add content to the platform, including lesson plans and tests, which students can access individually or in\u00A0collaborative study groups.\u00A0Additionally, QM\u00E1gico\u00A0provides them with services such as extensive training, platform customization, and content organization.\r\n\r\nAccording to QM\u00E1gico's co-founder, Thiago Feij\u00E3o, the startup's paid platform can already be accessed by 10,000 students in over 450 schools, while its 50,000 users have registered for its free offering (read our full interview).\r\nQranio\r\nQranio\u00A0is a gamified learning platform where users can play quizzes and turn their points and badges into real-life rewards. Already available as a website and via mobile apps, it took the opportunity of Campus Party Brazil to unveil a partnership with mobile carrier Vivo to provide SMS-based content.\r\n\r\nTalking to\u00A0Brazilian blog Startupi, CEO\u00A0Samir I\u00E1sbeck explained that\u00A0Qranio's team hopes to reach 1 million users by mid-2013, up from 60,000. To reach this ambitious goal, the startup has secured a $150,000 strategic investment from Brazilian startup Movile, in addition to approximately $250,000 from a Brazilian angel investor and previous seed capital from Wayra Brazil, which incubated the project.\r\nVeduca\r\nVeduca\u00A0is a learning\u00A0platform that provides Brazilian users with 5,000 online classes that it licensed from some of the world\u2019s top universities, such as\u00A0MIT, Harvard, Yale &amp;amp;amp; Princeton, and translated into Brazilian Portuguese when necessary.\u00A0The startup is about to launch a new version of its site, which is already available\u00A0here\u00A0for beta testers.\r\n\r\nIn December 2012, it\u00A0raised a $740k round led by Mountain do Brasil and backed by 500 Startups. At the time, it\u00A0had already attracted 1 million unique visitors over the last 7 months, and had plans to reach this number every month by the end of 2013. As we learned this week, Veduca now has a new backer to achieve this goal: VC fund\u00A0Macmillan Digital Education, which also invested in Easyaula.\r\n\r\nDo you know other promising Latin American educational startups? Let us know in the comments.\r\n\r\nImage credit: Pond5"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/la/2013/02/15/9-latin-american-education-startups-you-should-know/>