Businessman Marcelo Claure, former SoftBank and current partner of Brightstar Capital Partners, led the purchase of 50% of Arden University, one of the largest private institutions in the United Kingdom. The deal was valued at more than $ 1 billion ($ 5.58 billion), according to sources heard by Financial Times.
With about 40,000 students in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, Arden prepares an ambitious internationalization plan. The goal is to expand its global performance by 2026, offering British diplomas to full -time students around the world, focusing on Latin America, Middle East and Continental Europe.
Claure’s bet is in the intensive use of artificial intelligence to break language barriers and expand the university’s reach. In an interview with FTHe stated that the plan is to translate the curricula of over 140 courses to more than 150 languages. In addition to real -time translation, technology will be used to offer personalized tutoring, adapting the content to the reality of each student.
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“AI allows you to teach a class in English and deliver it simultaneously in more than 150 different languages,” he said.
The institution, which already adopts hybrid model with up to 20% of face -to -face classes, will also sponsor visas to attract international students interested in attending their physical and digital camps in the UK.
“We will recruit students from around the world who want to study in the UK,” said Claure.
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The university’s acquired slice was purchased from the Global University Systems, an educational conglomerate with a profit -based Educational in the Netherlands. The transaction marks the rapprochement between Claure and Andrew Weinberg, founder of Brightstar Capital Partners and his former ally at the first Brightstar – telecommunications company sold to softbank in 2014.
After the sale, Claure held prominent positions at Softbank, leading the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile in the US and coordinating international investments from the Japanese group. He left the company in 2022 after remuneration and since then has been operating via its Family Office, Claure Group, focusing on technology, Latin America and Mobility.
With the new movement, Claure takes over the presidency of the Arden University Council and plans to expand the institution’s presence with new acquisitions in the education sector. The focus will follow in companies with strong technological bias and AI solutions for teaching.
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Brightstar Capital Partners, in turn, manages more than $ 5 billion in assets and has a recent history of billionaire sales with high returns to investors.
