The medical education platform Sanar, whose investors include DNA Capital, Valor Capital, Vox Capital, Península, Green Rock, and Igah Ventures, has hired Itaú BBA to raise over R$200 million, three sources told NeoFeed .
The funding will be primarily primary, although a small secondary tranche is not ruled out. The money will be used for the expansion of the company, which is headquartered in Salvador and has opened several lines of business in recent years. Its last funding round was in 2020, when it raised R$ 60 million.
Since then, the company, which started as a preparatory course for students preparing for medical residency, has expanded into postgraduate programs and acquired Cetrus, a leading medical training center specializing in ultrasound and subspecialties, in a deal worth R$ 166 million in 2022. This transformed it into a university.
At the time, the purchase of Cetrus was financed with more capital from investors, as well as with the issuance of a debenture, the redemption of which was brought forward and recently exchanged for another with a lower rate.
Currently, Sanar has four business units. The first is SanarFlix, a content platform for medical students that gave rise to the company. The second is Sanar Pós, which offers postgraduate specialization courses for doctors.
Sanar Shopping, its third business arm, sells books to doctors and healthcare professionals. And finally, Cetrus, which offers more than 150 specialization courses, such as fetal medicine, echocardiography, and exercise and sports medicine.
With these business lines, the company has an EBITDA margin of 20% and is profitable, says a source closely following Sanar's new fundraising. "It already generates hundreds of millions of reais in revenue and is cash-generating," the source states.
This is the profile that has been able to raise growth funding rounds in the Brazilian market: companies that can generate cash and have proven business models. "Capital for growth has become scarce. Only companies that have weathered the initial hurdles are managing to raise capital," says a venture capital investor.
Founded in 2014 by Ubiraci Mercês, Caio Nunes, Mauricio Lima, and Leandro Lima, the company reports that more than 500,000 healthcare professionals have already consumed at least one of its products.
Sanar operates in an increasingly competitive market. One of its competitors is Medway, which received a check for R$ 75 million in 2022, led by Softbank. Another rival is MedGrupo, founded by Cassio Engel in 1997.
Afya , which is publicly traded on Nasdaq and valued at US$1.5 billion, also has a division that prepares medical students for residency, in addition to having developed a technological platform to attract healthcare professionals.
When contacted, Sanar stated that it "does not comment on market rumors."
