14-16 September 2015, Bogota, Colombia Debrief › content › dam › corporate › ...Latin America Education Summit 2015 14-16 September 2015, Bogota, Colombia Summit Debrief, October

Latin America Education Summit 201514-16 September 2015, Bogota, Colombia

Summit Debrief, October 2015

Debrief

Introduction to the Latin America Education Summit

The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) and Omidyar Network recently hosted the Latin America Ed-ucation Summit, a three day peer learning event designed to support and catalyze emerging education com-panies across Spanish speaking Latin America. Over the course of the Summit, PALF and Omidyar Network organized a collection of high potential education companies, investors and mentors focused on education entrepreneurship and innovation across the region.

Over 130 and companies were evaluated across Latin America and the top 9 were selected to attend the Sum-mit in Bogota. Selected companies represented five countries and a variety of educational sub-sectors. The founders represented the unique diversity present in Latin America with a tremendous variety in age, gender, educational background, and professional experience. The Summit also hosted a range of mentors and operators from around Latin America and investors focused on Latam based in the US. The group of mentors ranged in stage, size, sub-sector focus and included many of the most well known investors working to support education entrepreneurs and build the sector across Latin America. The mentors were hand-selected to share experience and provide feedback on challenges companies presented.

This brief report highlights the purpose of the Summit, key lessons learned related to the gathering and educa-tion sector and the participating education ventures.

Core pillars of the Latin America Education Summit

The Summit hosted some of the strongest founders running high potential education companies in a peer learn-ing environment with experienced investors and operators. Together over the course of the Summit, partici-pants formed relationships and work hand in hand to strengthen the Latam education ecosystem and address challenges the entrepreneurs faced. In order to create the ideal environment, the Summit was designed with three core pillars in mind:

Peer Learning: Peer Learning between entrepreneurs and investorsEntrepreneurs participated in over 24 hours of rigorous in-person learning sessions created by PALF & Omid-yar Network with substantial contributions from individual mentors and entrepreneurs. The sessions covered pertinent topics including: implementing educational outcomes into the core of the business, growing and main-taining a positive company culture, funding options available and customer retention and acquisition. Ecosystem: Commitment to the education ecosystemThe Summit hosted the strongest entrepreneurs from the region and deeply experienced mentors. A small cohort of companies and mentors enabled participants to spend significant time building relationships with one another. The Summit featured many breakout sessions to discuss real time strategic challenges as well as focused activities to address key issues education companies face. These activities created an environment to form real and lasting relationships, which will hopefully serve as the foundation for an education ecosystem across the LatAm region. Mentorship: Selecting experienced education in-vestors and operatorsBy selectively choosing which mentors participated in the summit, we ensured exposure to high quality and experi-enced mentors. This provided entrepreneurs with access to useful mentorship. Companies were also provided sig-nificant time to build relationships with mentors to address critical strategic challenges.

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Lessons Learned

Throughout the Summit, many valuable ideas were shared during learning sessions, breakouts and 1-on-1 ses-sions. Here are some of the most important lessons that emerged during the course of the Summit:

Lesson 1: Venture & Participant SelectionWhat: Selection of great entrepreneurs and high quality mentors is essential to create a worthwhile Summit Why: Selecting more developed, high potential teams drives demand for the best mentors and education stake-holders within a market. Similarly, strong mentors and stakeholders drive demand for participation from quality entrepreneurs. The most important investors, education stakeholders and quality mentors were interested in engaging because they could each learn and benefit from interactions. At the Summit, interested stakeholders participated for three days straight due to the perceived and actual value they were able to gain from partici-pation. Lesson 2: Length of SummitWhat: A short Summit enables high caliber talent the ability to commit and participate. Why: A short time frame of three intensive days enabled us to get the best of the best in terms of teams and participants. Although it is a commitment, it is short enough for very busy entrepreneurs and other stakehold-ers to commit to participation. It also provides enough time to form real relationships and create an environ-ment where participants feel comfortable sharing and learning together. If the program is any longer or requires multiple travel commitments the best entrepreneurs and mentors are less likely to participate.

Lesson 3: Focus on the big pictureWhat: Having entrepreneurs prepared with strategic challenges enabled them to address important areas of concern.

Why: Company leaders often focus on day-to-day activities, which limits their ability to focus on bigger pic-ture goals and challenges. Companies were asked to prepare strategic challenges, and mentors were asked to provide areas of expertise. This allowed matching companies with appropriate mentors to provide objective feedback and thought partnership. Taking time to think through these challenges was invaluable for companies. Lesson 4: Educational OutcomesWhat: Companies are eager to incorporate measures of efficacy. Why: A profitable and scalable business is important for the entrepreneurs well-being, but also for sustainable growth in educational quality. Entrepreneurs at the Summit were not simply okay with having a thriving busi-ness, but are intent on delivering educational outcomes. Efficacy sessions helped entrepreneurs focus on what outcomes they are striving to provide learners, and how they can begin measuring whether they are successfully doing so.


Education Sector LearningsCommon themes emerged as being vitally important to the participating companies, such as: measuring edu-cation outcomes, raising funds, customer acquisition and retention, human capital and culture, expansion and working with government. Here are a number of the key themes:

• Raising Funds: There are a number of sources of capital out there. It’s important to find the right source of capital to fulfill your needs. Entrepreneurs were urged to find a source of capital that can add value and is mission aligned.

• Government: Dealing with government is vitally important, especially if you are looking to serve the public sector and reach lower income learners. It’s important to learn how to work with government and at the same time not be too heavily dependent on government. Therefore, entrepreneurs must develop multiple and diversified sources of revenue.

• Expansion: Regional expansion, especially to other LatAm countries can be very challenging and can take focus away from the country with traction. Companies must evaluate risk factors and think about different strategies when entering or expanding to a new market.

right people. Hiring employees incorrect for the company or role is a mistake that can have a tremendous negative impact on the bottom-line and the culture of a company. It is important to be clear with candi-dates about the role and the business. Once employees are hired, it is critical that they see the outcome and purpose of the organization.

PALF and Omidyar Network Future Plans

Following the success of the Latin America Education Summit, PALF and Omidyar Network will expand the number of Summits as well as host in new geographies in order to strengthen ecosystems and build relation-ships. Regions being considered include: Southeast Asia, Brazil, and a follow-up summit in either Africa, India or Latin America. We will continue to optimize future Summits for network building, due diligence and investment. Based on learnings from this Summit, we will be able to improve upon the content and delivery to increase the usefulness to all Summit stakeholders. To learn more, please visit https://www.affordable-learning.com/programs.html. For partner inquiries reach out to [email protected].

• Business Models: Education entrepreneurs must build sustainable business models, you cannot rely on subsequent financing rounds in Latin America.

• Acquisition & Retention: Focus on efficient customer acquisition. Always focus on custom-er experience, engagement and emotion. Even in an offline model or online model, experience and engagement will retain customers.

• Human Capital & Culture: Creating a posi-tive company culture begins with hiring the


About Our Partners About the Pearson Affordable Learning FundPALF was founded in 2012 with $15 million of initial Pearson capital. Our vision is to help millions of children in the world access a quality education in a cost effective, profitable and scalable manner. In addition we want to demonstrate to governments and donors that private education can help to educate their youngest citizens in an efficient way. Based on our track record, in January 2015 we announced that Pearson will invest a further $50 million over the next 3 years. This is a testament to Pearson’s commitment to educate children in the de-veloping world and brings our total assets under management to $80m. With our additional capital, PALF is dedicated to using its experience in impact investing and expertise in education to provide a quality education across Latin America. About Omidyar NetworkOmidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. Omidyar Network has committed more than $730 million to for-profit companies and non-profit or-ganizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple initiatives, including Consumer Internet & Mobile, Education, Financial Inclusion, Government Transparency, and Property Rights. For more information, please visit www.omidyar.com.

Participants: Latin America Education Summit 2015 Cohort

Acamica Online Technical Courses / Skills Development PlatformBuenos Aires, ArgentinaGonzalo Orsi Acamica has created a platform to help users learn technical skills to be better prepared for the rapidly grow-ing technology sector. They are most interested in preparing learners to have the skills necessary to gain em-ployment in a technical capacity within 6 months of sign up. They currently offer 30 courses focused on web development and design.

Campo AltoOffline Vocational Training CentersBogota, ColombiaDr. Andres Angulo

the perception of vocational education in Latam. The organization was founded in 1996, made up of 3 doctors aiming to solve a significant under supply of technical support staff which they were unable to employ as prac-titioners.

CampoAlto has nine vocational training centers for technicians, covering 23 different technical jobs. The centers are located in low-income communities and provide flexible payment options and schedules to accommodate customer needs. The organi-zation is expanding to new vocations and focused on changing


EducatinaOnline Content / Education Management PlatformBuenos Aires, ArgentinaDr. Denise Abulafia

Educatina is an EdTech startup company based in Argentina that aims to democratize access to world-class edu-cation in Latin America. The main two websites, www.educatina.com and www.aulaya.com, offer personalized homework help to millions of students of all ages. Educatina partners with private educational institutions and the public sector to offer students the best learning experience democratizing access to innovative education through different B2B products.

EnovaOffline Learning Centers and Digital LibrariesMexico City, MexicoMois Cherum

Futura SchoolsKinder, Primary and Secondary SchoolsArequipa, PeruRudy Beeck

KiduEarly Childhood Development CentersBogota, ColombiaAndrea Zuluaga

Enova was founded 6 years ago, operating after-school learning centers and digital libraries. They are BOP focused with centers in every state of Mexico and often in the poorest areas. The centers are providing learning and skill development opportuni-ties for low-income learners across Mexico.

Futura Schools is a private school chain with 5 schools in Arequi-pa and provinces around Peru with over 1,000 students enrolled with ambitious growth plans. Futura emphasizes academics, val-ues and culture, teacher development and continual improve-ment.

At KIDU we want to equip kids with all the tools to have a happy and successful future. We achieve this through an after school program for kids between 4 and 12 years delivered in our learning centres; our first centre is located in Bogota. The program includes: homework support, learning projects, exper-iments, arts and physical activities and development of non-cog-nitive skills. Our mission is to help each child to develop their potential in an inspiring and safe environment.


Open Green RoadOnline Test PrepSantiago, ChileSebastián Arancibia Galilea

Open Green Road’s (OGR) main product is an online tool to prepare Chilean students for the PSU (SAT equiv-alent test in Chile). OGR offers their test preparation software to students and their platform to schools, which provides analytics and integration into their curriculum.

Tool-beEarly Childhood Educational Resources and CentersMedellin, ColombiaDiego Insignares

World Tech MakersOffline Coding Bootcamps and Online Platform for CodingBogota, ColombiaIlana Milkes

youth. With significant consumer internet growth, schools integrating technology and huge demand for tech-nology skills; WTM is aiming to supply skills, meet demand and bridge this gap.

Tool-be’s mission is to support, prepare and empower parents with their children’s development during the early years. They have created three products in order to accomplish this mission: (1) A physical kit for 0 to 24 months that offers a complete guide of activities (2) An iOS app providing guided activities, tracking and progress that parents engage with during the child’s first year and (3) Tool-be Haus: an offline early childhood edu-cation center.

World Tech Makers (WTM) goal is to unleash human poten-tial through coding bootcamps and video games. They have launched offline bootcamps in 3 Latin American markets. WTM is currently launching an online platform focused on


14-16 September 2015, Bogota, Colombia Debrief › content › dam › corporate › ...Latin America Education Summit 2015 14-16 September 2015, Bogota, Colombia Summit Debrief, October

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