CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”) announces that CVC Fund VII has agreed to acquire 50% of Multiversity, the owner of Italy’s largest online university Universitá Telematica Pegaso (“Pegaso”), as well as Mercatorum University. Multiversity and Pegaso founder Danilo Iervolino will retain a 50% stake in the company and continue as chairman and CEO.

Founded in 2006, Pegaso is the largest online university in Italy, offering courses to c. 80,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students across more than 70 exam venues. Pegaso’s innovative online platform offers a range of programs for the underserved further education market, including bachelor and master degrees, post-graduate masters and single courses.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity for CVC Fund VII to invest in Pegaso. The online education sector is a rapidly growing global market that provides students the opportunity to pursue individual study paths and work training services. Many students do not have the opportunity to access further education via traditional routes so Pegaso is helping to meet an important and growing social need.” Explains Andrea Ferrante, Managing Director of CVC.

“The acquisition of Pegaso further strengthens CVC’s presence in Italy and in European higher education, following CVC Fund VII’s recent investment in Spain’s leading private university, Alfonso X el Sabio (“UAX”) of Villanueva de la Caada.

“We look forward to working closely with the team, to build on their achievements, to continue improving Pegaso and Mercatorum’s quality proposition and to accelerate the business’ investment plans.”

Danilo Iervolino, CEO and founder of Multiversity, comments: “We are very proud of the success achieved by Pegaso University so far. We believe that now is the time for us to partner with a high-profile international firm, to support our growth strategy for Italy and international markets. We believe that in CVC Capital Partners we have found the perfect partner to help us to deliver on our mission. There remain many untapped markets that we want to capitalise on and CVC’s sector expertise and global network will be invaluable to us as we enter our next phase of growth.”

CVC was assisted by Legance, Bain & Company, PwC Advisory and Facchini, Rossi e Michelutti.

Multiversity was supported by Studio Bifolco & Associati, EY Advisory – M&A and Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners.