The founders of the company, Carlos Martínez and Belén Arcones, will keep a substantial minority stake in the company. CAPZA plans to continue consolidating IMF as one of the reference actors in online education, widening its educational offer and boosting its international expansion.

Founded in Madrid, with more than 20 years of track record and 125,000 alumni, IMF Business School is the online education pioneer in Spain and the leading company in the online masters’ segment. IMF has a wide offer of more than 130 courses in areas such as management, technology and healthcare. Its most popular courses include, among others, the Master in Big Data & Business Analytics, the Master in Marketing & Digital Communication, the MBA or the Master in Neuropsychology, Multiple Intelligences and Mindfulness. The content of its courses is developed together with industry experts, universities and specialized entities.

To support its online training, IMF has a network of partner campuses throughout Spain, in addition to its delegations in Ecuador and Colombia. IMF also offers B2B training services to corporates, Vocational Training, University Expert courses and University Degrees. IMF strategic pillars consist in providing a top-quality education, accompanying students across their journey, with courses well adapted to labor market demands. This strategy explains the strong student satisfaction and employability rates which IMF presents. It is worth mentioning the special support provided by IMF to its students throughout the recent months of lockdown.

With CAPZA’s support, IMF intends to implement an ambitious growth plan that involves expanding its academic offering and further internationalizing the group, mainly in Latin America where IMF is already a prominent player.

Carlos Martínez commented: “The alliance with CAPZA will reinforce our international expansion plans. CAPZA’s experience in the education segment and its geographic coverage make it a fantastic partner and companion”.

Belén Arcones added: “There is a perfect symbiosis between CAPZA and us, as we share the common goal to keep investing in IMF’s development in order to offer our students a top-quality and updated education, helping to reduce the gap between skills´ demand from employers and labor market´s offer. We are fully confident in the success that this partnership will bring to IMF”.

José Tomas Moliner, Head of CAPZA in Spain, explained: “The quality of IMF’s management team and its innovation capabilities have been key factors in our investment analysis. IMF has been at the forefront of innovation since its inception more than 20 years ago. The quality of both the courses offered and the educational online platform are among the best on the market, which is reflected in the satisfaction and employability of students. We believe that the positioning of IMF as an online company, its agility to adapt to market needs and its presence in different Spanish-speaking geographies confirm the great potential of the company. We are excited about the project and the opportunity to contribute to the expansion of the group in the coming years”.

This is the first deal of CAPZA 5 Flex Equity, which confirms CAPZA’s commitment to the Spanish market. CAPZA already raised €450m in the first closing of this fund, which has a target size of around €500m.

The investment in IMF represents CAPZA’s third Flex Equity deal in Spain, following the acquisitions of Ivnosys, a leading company in digital signature and e-identity, and in the Dorsia, Eva and Origen Group, the health clinics conglomerate.

Through its Private Debt fund, in Spain, CAPZA has financed the labor risk prevention specialist ASPY, the gourmet hamburger chain Goiko Grill and the orthopedic prosthesis distributor MBA.