Clariens Educação continues to invest in the market for medical and health courses, expanding its operations to Espírito Santo.
The company, the education arm of Mubadala Capital , the alternative asset manager of Mubadala Investment Company, has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Sociedade Educação e Gestão de Excelência / Vila Velha (Segex), the holding company of Universidade Vila Velha (UVV).
Located in the municipality of Vila Velha, in Espírito Santo, UVV has 55 undergraduate courses, both in-person and online, in addition to a medical school and nine residency programs. The university also offers 57 MBA and postgraduate courses, as well as 12 master's and doctoral programs.
With five educational institutions located in the states of Bahia, Goiás, and Minas Gerais, the purchase of UVV represents not only Clariens' arrival in Espírito Santo, but also its entry into the distance learning (EAD) market.
It was not possible to ascertain the financial terms of the transaction, which will be analyzed by the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade).
Founded in 2021, Clariens has been using acquisitions as an expansion strategy. In June 2022, the company acquired the medical program at Faculdade Zarns – Salvador (formerly Medicina FTC) and Unesulbahia, both in Bahia. In addition to the medical program, Unesulbahia offers degrees in other fields.
In early 2023, the company made its third acquisition, that of Faculdade Zarns – Itumbiara (formerly Imepac Itumbiara), in Goiás. In 2024, Inapós, from Minas Gerais, became part of the group as the fourth acquisition and was renamed, last year, as Faculdade Zarns Pouso Alegre.
Also last year, the group acquired the Imepac University Center, also in Minas Gerais, which offers a medical degree and undergraduate programs in the areas of humanities, health, and technology. With these five assets, Clariens now has approximately 1,000 places and 5,000 students enrolled in medical school, according to the newspaper Valor Econômico .
The acquisition reinforces Clariens' position in the medical education market, a segment that has attracted investments from various education companies due to the high tuition fees, with monthly payments that can exceed R$ 10,000.
Brazil has experienced a boom in medical courses in recent years. A survey by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (FMUSP) indicated that, between January 2024 and September 2025, the Ministry of Education (MEC) authorized the creation of 77 new medical courses, totaling 4,412 undergraduate places.
During the same period, another 20 existing courses had their classes expanded, which represented the opening of 1,049 additional places.
In total, the country gained 5,461 new places in less than two years. With this, Brazil reached 494 medical schools in 2025, with 50,974 annual undergraduate places, 80% of which are in private institutions.
Contacted by NeoFeed , Clariens said they would not comment.
