Kroton Educacional

Kroton is the largest private educational company in the world and was founded in 1966 in Belo Horizonte. It has operated for over 45 years in all educational segments, such as preschool, elementary, secondary, adult high school, college preparatory school, free courses, and other related educational activities, as well as higher, professional, and post-graduation education.

Kroton has more than 1.9 million students, with 290,000 students in basic education in 213 campuses and 726 poles divided into 22 educational brands located in all Brazilian states. The company is the largest in world in undergraduate.

The company is also involved in the distribution, wholesale, retail, import, and export of textbooks, course books, magazines, and other publications. In addition, it engages in the licensing of school-related and pedagogical products. The company operates 21 own campuses under the Pitagoras brand; ten under the Unic brand; five under the Unopar brand; and ten under the Unime, Ceama, Unirondon, Fais, Fama and União brands in ten Brazilian states. It also operates 804 associated schools in Brazil under the Pitagoras brand, as well as five partner schools in Japan and a partner school in Canada.

It is the largest Brazilian company in the higher education segment by number of students and revenue. In July 2014, the company merged with its largest competitor Anhanguera Educacional becoming the largest higher educational company in the world by market capitalisation.

In July 2016 the company announced a merger with its largest competitor at the time, Estácio S.A. The General Superintendency of CADE, the Brazilian antitrust agency, has stated that they consider the merger “an operation with potential to cause anti-competitive effects in the markets of on-site and distance higher education”. The merger still has to be analyzed by the agency's Tribunal, which will ultimately decide whether it will be allowed—possibly with measures to minimize the lack of competition in those markets.