Peruvian start up uDocz recently announced an investment round led by GSV Ventures, one of the most prominent Edtech venture capital firms in the world. This is GSV Ventures’s first investment in a Latin American startup. GSV has previously invested in well known EdTech startups including Coursera, Degreed, and Guild Education.
uDocz Founder Carlos Effio and his team of 20 employees have been hard at work over the past four years quietly building one of the largest libraries of Spanish language content for college students. uDocz’s customers are primarily university students and students studying to apply to university. uDocz’s active user base has achieved significant growth since the outbreak of the pandemic enabling university students to study remotely and continue learning. uDocz is an example of how disruptive edtech startups are transforming and improving the quality of education in Latin America.
The startup’s content is a key resource for students who are learning new material, often remotely and struggle with the cost and accessibility of traditional learning materials such as textbooks, class notes, photocopies, among others. uDocz has been regional since its inception and now serves more than 2 million students coming from all spanish speaking countries. Currently the startup’s biggest market is Mexico, followed by Peru and Colombia.
uDocz operates under a freemium model. All of the content is user generated, and students can read and access all the content for free. We have a small subset of premium content where a subscription is required. – Carlos Effio
UDocz now joins other Edtechs startups from Peru, including Crehana, Kurios, and Prendea, that have raised significant investment rounds from international investors. Peru-based venture capital firm Salkantay Ventures also joined the uDocz round. This creates a great round dynamic with a local investor and a world-class investor with sector expertise. This complementary investor base seems a solid formula for success, that will help uDocz to scale across Latin America with a high-quality product.
Peru is further growing its recognition as Edtech hub. Along with successful startups, the country has a growing group of EdTech investors. This includes Andres Benavides, who had an internship at GSV Capital, as well as Enzo Cavalie, who is currently an investor at Reach Capital, another prominent EdTech venture firm. In Peru, Winnipeg Capital is an active Edtech investor with investments in Talently, BeeReaders, Kurios, Prendea, Aprendiendo.la., and Simcase. Salkantay’s backing of uDocz is its third investment in the space, joining Talently and Slang.
It was great having an EdTech investor leading the round. They fully understand the business model, benefits, and challenges. Thus, they were able to form conviction while non-specialized funds still had doubts. – Carlos Effio
This investment round in uDocz shows the value of the product Carlos and his team has built and confirms Peru as an EdTech hub. Many local investors in Peru overlooked uDocz partly because of the startup’s non-traditional business model, but clearly experienced Edtech investors could see user engagement and potential others did not. Fortunately, due to this recent round, university students across Latin America will benefit from uDocz valuable product offering for many years.
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