From Zero to 14,000 Students: Bahema Enters the Leadership of Basic Education
- Mint Capital
- 17 de jun. de 2025
- 5 min de leitura
Bahema Educação, which operates major fundamental and secondary education school brands, received R$15 million at the turn of the year to bolster its cash position and continue its expansion. These funds came from the joint-venture fund managed by Mint Educação—an investor in Bahema since 2017. The JV’s portfolio began in 2020, with most of its capital provided by businessman Daniel Castanho, founder of the Ânima Group, and his family, who have been active in the education sector for years.
Transformed into an education business in 2016 by the Affonso Ferreira family, Bahema has been consolidating several school brands—14 in total—many of them with decades of history. Its first acquisition occurred in early 2017. Since then, it has acquired prominent schools in five Brazilian states: Escola Viva, Escola da Vila, and Brazilian International School (BIS) in São Paulo; Escola Parque in Rio de Janeiro; Balão Vermelho in Belo Horizonte; plus bilingual schools in Florianópolis and Blumenau; and Colégio Apoio in Pernambuco.
The goal is to continue the consolidation process while expanding existing brands. Following last year’s acquisitions and the consolidation of Escola Mais (a project launched with Mint in 2018), Bahema now operates three educational “pillars”: bilingual premium, contemporary premium, and accessible quality. A pro forma balance sheet for the first nine months of 2021—reflecting the full-year performance of all brands—showed revenue of nearly R$210 million. While the average private-school ENEM score is 603, Bahema’s schools average 663 points.
When Mint entered Bahema’s capital just over four years ago, its schools served 5,000 students. Today, that figure exceeds 14,000—excluding projected growth for 2022, as enrollments already indicate—explains Cássio Beldi, founder of the asset manager (now renamed Mint Educação), in an EXAME IN interview. Bahema, listed on Bovespa Mais, is valued at a little over R$240 million and has low liquidity—nearly 90% of shares are held by the shareholder group bound by the agreement.
Reinforcing Leadership in K‑12
The company's objective is to strengthen its position as an operator of elementary and secondary schools and expand its presence in high school education. With its current scale, Bahema is positioning itself as a sector consolidator. According to Mint, the K-12 market is six times larger than the higher education sector in student count and generates double the annual tuition revenue: R$60 billion versus R$33 billion.
Eleva Educação remains the clear leader in K-12, with over 130,000 students—following its acquisition of 45 Saber-branded schools from Cogna and Vasta. Eleva includes brands like Pensi, Elite, and Alfa, and has a cash-generation potential exceeding R$350 million post-2021 transactions.
Source of the Funds
The R$15 million Bahema received comes from the subscription of share warrants tied to R$115 million in convertible debentures issued at the end of 2020. The operation could reach R$230 million if all warrants (each convertible into five shares) are exercised. To date, Mint has already injected over R$30 million via warrants (excluding debentures) and plans to subscribe another R$34 million in the next window (March 15–30), per CVM filings. Previously, Mint had contributed R$100 million through capital raises in 2017 and 2019.
By the end of March, Mint's debentures automatically convert into shares. Depending on other investors' decisions, Mint Educação’s total stake in Bahema is expected to reach between 41% and 50%, making it the largest shareholder—surpassing Canadian insurer Fairfax (currently around 32%, diluted to 20–23%). The Affonso Ferreira family is expected to retain 15–17%. Mint’s JV fund absorbed about 60% of the operation, positioning it to significantly influence corporate capital structure, with an existing stake slightly above 21%.
Through these moves with Mint, the Castanho family is increasingly becoming a major investor in Bahema. This aligns with Bahema’s evolution into a large sector operator, backed by a notable growth project. The Castanhos—among Brazil’s top education investors—cover elementary to postgraduate levels. Daniel Castanho, a passionate advocate for education and seen as a sector visionary, leads Ânima (R$3 billion valuation, ~340,000 students) as Chairman. “Education for a country can’t be a priority; it has to be a premise—like safety for an airline,” he told EXAME IN in September.
Besides investing through the JV, Daniel’s family holding Ágathos (headed by his father, Luiz Castanho), owns under 5% of Bahema. Other JV participants include Daniel’s brother Rômulo Castanho of Atmo (operator of Lourenço Castanho and partner in the Lumiar model). The varied participation reflects a shared educational passion. Daniel, though no longer on the board, sits on its pedagogical and academic committee alongside two Bahema directors. The sector's fragmentation and dominance by family-owned businesses make specialized management essential.
Operational and Governance Evolution
Mint partners Cássio Beldi and Marcelo Walton have personally witnessed this evolution. “K-12 education itself isn’t very scalable. But the operational knowledge is, and the sector is desperately underprofessionalized in management,” says Beldi, explaining why Bahema is more than an investment holding. He emphasizes that its competitive edge lies in accumulated experience and relationships—hence Mint’s decision to focus on this niche. “Reputation is essential in this market,” adds Walton.
This transformation by Bahema wasn’t small. Many school businesses were loss-making due to management deficiencies. The sector is undergoing a deep transformation due to technology and labor-market shifts. “Content is now the means, not the end”—Castanho noted in the EXAME IN interview, highlighting one of the sector's key challenges.
Expansion and Strategic Priorities
In a recent investor presentation, Mint outlined Bahema’s main growth areas:
Organic expansion and management professionalization.
Broadening high school offerings across brands.
Launching extracurricular courses sold separately to families, which typically account for 25% of market revenue. In Bahema’s portfolio, extracurricular revenues vary—around 20% at BIS versus just 1% at Autonomia (SC).
“Education is a decades-long investment, not a short-term play,” emphasizes Beldi, underlining the long-term mindset and ownership culture required in the sector. Yet short-term results can still be impressive.
The Escola Mais initiative—delivering quality, contemporary education to lower-income families—demonstrates that potential. Started in 2018 with just 60 students, it grew to 2,200 last year (versus the 630 forecast for 2021). With new capital from debentures and warrants, eight more units are slated, including the converted Colégio Tupy in Florianópolis.
The project taps a large underserved segment—80% of low-income families attend public schools. Tuition is around R$8,500, compared to over R$39,000 at premium schools.
But high-end schools aren’t off the agenda: this year, BIS will double capacity with a flagship campus relocation—intended as a model for future bilingual campus expansion (Florianópolis and Santa Catarina)—all acquired from Ânima in 2021.
Corporate Governance Structure
Bahema’s changing share structure won't alter its governance, which underwent restructuring in 2020–21. A shareholder agreement involving the Affonso Ferreira family, Mint, and Fairfax governs company affairs.
Gabriel Ribeiro (co‑founder of Ânima) was brought in as CEO in 2020. A board overhaul and committee formations have followed. Cássio Beldi remains Board Chairman. The board includes:
Maria Fernanda Tabacow (Ágathos; vice-chairperson)
Maurício Escobar and Ignacio Dauden (América co-founders; university education committee)
João Alceu Amoro Lima (economist; former insurance/health sector exec)
Bruno de Almeida Camargo (Fairfax chair)
Jeffrey Ware (replacing Guilherme Affonso Ferreira; handles finance/M&A)
In addition to academic and finance committees, Bahema also has committees for people & culture, risk, auditing, and compliance, reflecting a comprehensive “Novo Mercado-style” governance structure. Despite this, there's no short-term plan to migrate from Bovespa Mais.
From Small Holding to Education Leader
Although still modest compared to B3 giants like Vale, Petrobras, or Magazine Luiza, Bahema has positioned itself—within four years—as one of Brazil’s leading elementary education companies.
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