Itaú's Cubo doubles down on 'edtechs'

Brazilian bank Itaú's Cubo, considered the largest hub for digital entrepreneurship in Latin America, inked a partnership with educational group Kroton to support startups focused on the development of solutions for the education segment.

Under the newly created Cubo Education unit, the two groups will provide mentoring and infrastructure to accelerate so-called edtechs.

A whole store at the Cubo building, to be opened in the second half, will be dedicated to these firms and will have learning lounges and classrooms to pilot solutions developed, Cubo said in a statement.

Kroton and Cubo said they aim to create "the largest and most successful outpost for Latin American education startups" and a "world reference of modern content adapted to 21st century skills." Investment figures were not disclosed.

Launched in September 2015 by Itaú in partnership with Redpoint eventures, Cubo currently houses some 50 startups in its building in São Paulo, as well as more than 250 startups on the Cubo Digital platform.

Cubo will move in August to a 20,000m2 site, reportedly four times larger than the current facility and with capacity to house 250 startups.

Itaú is also doubling in size its analytics center and increasing to 150, from 50, the number of its data scientists, among other initiatives.