€1.5m · Other round · Edtech · Milan, Italy
Milan-based Testbusters, which combines university-admissions courses, publishing and digital exam preparation, has secured a €1.2m capital increase within a €1.5m minority investment from Smart Capital. The investor said it completed the capital increase on 27 October; a final €300k purchase of existing shares is expected by the end of November.
Peer-led test preparation becomes an acquisition platform
Testbusters sells classroom and online courses, proprietary study materials and digital simulations for university entrance tests, with a particular focus on medical and health programmes. Its teaching model pairs applicants with university students who have already passed the same selection process. Smart Capital’s initial investment announcement described a community of more than 600 tutors, while Testbusters’ current company page says the wider network now exceeds 1,000 teachers and collaborators.
The commercial challenge in admissions preparation is that a student’s immediate need can end once an exam is over. Testbusters is trying to extend that relationship by acquiring adjacent preparation businesses and adding more products across the education journey. It has already bought UniAdmissions, which prepares applicants for Oxford and Cambridge, and TopSquad, which focuses on Bocconi entrance tests. A shared operating system for tutor recruitment, course delivery, publishing and simulations could spread central costs across a broader catalogue, while each acquisition supplies a specialist curriculum and an established route to students.
Growth capital meets a profitable operating base
Smart Capital reported €8.5m of consolidated revenue and €1.7m of adjusted EBITDA for Testbusters in 2025, alongside €2.5m of net financial debt, and said the group expects revenue above €10m in 2026. Those figures position the transaction as expansion capital for an operating education business rather than funding for initial product validation. The €1.2m capital increase adds fresh money for the acquisition strategy; the separate €300k share purchase, if completed, will change ownership but will not provide additional growth cash to the company.
Smart Capital is taking a minority stake and plans to appoint general manager Andrea Faraggiana to Testbusters’ board. The next proof point is integration: the group must preserve specialist teaching quality across different admissions markets while making its shared technology and peer-led operating model useful to the acquired brands. The modest size of the fresh-capital component makes cash generation and disciplined deal selection particularly important to that plan.
