Vinco

Retaining employees through education

AuthorAuthor

Manuel Pozas & Diego Elizondo
July 11, 2023

In Mexico, there are over 35 million employees who need higher education. When we consider the rest of Latin America, the number increases to 185 million.

There is an education gap in the region. Fortunately, someone is working on a fix.

Let’s dive in.

Imagine this

  • You are the head of HR at a manufacturing company. In the last few months, employee turnover has skyrocketed.

  • It didn’t take you long to figure out why employees were leaving.

  • Foreign companies are arriving in Mexico at a faster pace than ever before.

  • Desperate for talent, they started poaching employees from anywhere they could.

  • Unable to match the salaries they are being offered, you face a difficult task.

  • Talking to other companies facing the same issue, you come across Vinco, which helps companies attract, retain and nurture their company workforce through education.

Explain it like I’m five

Vinco connects businesses with educational institutions to upskill and retain their workforce.

  • They provide personal coaches to help employees obtain higher education, impacting their personal and professional lives.

  • They offer low-cost and high-quality educational programs by partnering with top institutions in the region.

  • Companies can track and control employees’ progress with a centralized platform.

With Vinco, companies can use education as a strategy to retain talent.

The ABCs

  • Industries: EdTech

  • Headquarters: Monterrey, Mexico

  • Year Operations Started: 2021

  • Team Size: 42

  • Raised: $2.63M

  • Accelerator/Investors: Y Combinator, Reach Capital, Learn Capital, Angel Ventures, & Angel investors (Rachel Romer, Beth Axelrod).

  • Business Model: Revenue share with educational institutions

Other players:

Background check

What we like:

  • Traction: More than +70 companies trust Vinco and have partnered with top Latam educational institutions, offering over +2,500 programs ranging from high school to master’s degrees. Founders claim that their programs have an 85% completion rate and have increased retention rates up to 4x.

  • Scalable: Since Vinco is the middleman and most of their course offering is online, they don’t need a physical presence. They operate remotely and have been able to scale to Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Brazil.

  • Nearshoring: Mexico’s nearshoring trend has created a “war for talent” ecosystem. Foreign companies have been poaching each other’s workforce, and Vinco is ready to help companies improve their retention rate through education.

  • Long-needed solution: As mentioned in the introduction, Latin America has an education gap. More than 185 million employees need more education. Vinco doesn’t only help businesses upskill and retain companies’ workforce. They also impact employees’ personal and professional lives.

Road Blocks:

  • Budget: Improving employee benefits has a price, and in times of crisis, HR budgets are the first to go away since money is needed for working capital and operations.

  • Target market: Vinco deals with educational institutions and companies to sign off, and they rely heavily on volume since they only take a cut from enrolled associates.

  • Interest: In Latam, employees tend to think short-term and prefer to take more cash up-front than thinking long-term and getting an education and opportunities later in their careers.

The Architects

Request intro with the founders by sending an email to [email protected]

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