The Co-investment Fund (FOCO), managed by COFIDES, will invest €90 million in Proeduca, the leading Spanish-language online higher education platform. FOCO will co-invest alongside UK-based Schroders Capital, Swiss investment firm Unigestion, and the Portobello Fund to support Proeduca’s growth and innovation strategy.
Proeduca is a Spanish company specializing in private online higher education and is the parent company of UNIR – Universidad Internacional de La Rioja. With over 100,000 students and nearly 440 academic programs, the group is a key player in the online education space. This investment aims to promote the development of online education in Spain, in line with FOCO’s strategic priorities. It also contributes to strengthening the country’s economic and educational landscape, fostering technological innovation and the digital transformation of the university system.
According to Ángela Pérez, Chairwoman and CEO of COFIDES: “This FOCO investment reinforces Spain’s position as a reference point for international education investment, while helping close the digital gap, promote inclusion, and create opportunities for young people.”
FOCO is a fund launched by the Spanish Government as part of the addendum to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed through the NextGenerationEU programme. With a total allocation of €2 billion, FOCO aims to attract foreign investment into the Spanish economy by improving access to funding for companies involved in green and digital transitions and technological innovation.
All FOCO investments must include a foreign co-investor and can be structured either as direct investments in companies or through investment funds. The fund is fully operational, and project proposals can be submitted via: foco@cofides.es.
COFIDES is a state-owned company that manages public financial resources as well as its own capital and that of third-party institutions. Its goals include supporting the internationalization of Spanish companies, attracting foreign investment into strategic sectors in Spain, promoting impact investing domestically, and contributing to the development of countries in which it invests. In addition to the State (majority shareholder), COFIDES’s shareholders include Banco Santander, BBVA, Banco Sabadell, and CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Schroders Capital is the private assets division of Schroders, a global investment management firm with over 200 years of history. Operating in 26 countries with more than 770 professionals dedicated to private markets, it offers tailored investment portfolios to institutional and private clients.
Schroders Capital currently manages €94 billion across private equity, private debt, and alternative credit, real estate, and infrastructure. Thanks to its global scale and strategic approach, the firm is well positioned to deliver integrated solutions while promoting best practices in sustainability and impact investing.
Unigestion is an international asset manager with $15 billion in assets under management and 10 offices across Europe, North America, and Asia. Its award-winning private equity team focuses on four core strategies: secondaries, direct investments, emerging managers, and climate impact. It seeks to invest in tomorrow’s market leaders—attractive, hard-to-access businesses aligned with seven key themes: climate transition, resource efficiency, sustainable cities, service efficiency, the future of work, personal well-being, and healthcare transformation.
Unigestion believes in combining human expertise with technology to make better, more consistent investment decisions. Since 2020, it has applied its proprietary AI tool PEpper to its private equity investments. The firm has also been a pioneer in ESG integration, having launched its first environment-focused private equity fund back in 2010.
Portobello Capital is a leading Southern European private equity firm based in Spain, focused on the mid-market segment. It manages approximately €3 billion in assets, with a seasoned team of more than 40 professionals and a current portfolio of 25 companies. Portobello invests in industry-leading businesses with the goal of driving growth by forming active, collaborative partnerships with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams.
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