Founded in 1998, Curro is headquartered in Bellville, Western Cape, and is listed on the JSE Limited, with a 2025 market capitalization of around R5 billion.[1]
As of 2025, Curro operates a total of 189 schools across 81 campuses. In the same year, enrolment across all of Curro's schools totaled over 73,000.[1]
History
Curro was founded in 1998, by then-teacher Chris van der Merwe, and initially operated in leased premises with a total of 28 students. The first Curro school campus was established a year later, in Durbanville, Western Cape.[8] Van der Merwe stated that he founded the school to create affordable private education in South Africa.[1]
Despite having no formal business training, van der Merwe managed Curro's financial planning and business model during its early years, while his business partners focused on academic matters.[1]
By 2006, Curro's total enrolment had reached around 1,000 students, and a second campus was built, in Langebaan.[9] Silver Lakes and Roodeplaat schools followed.
In 2011, Paladin Capital, a subsidiary of PSG Konsult, bought a 50% shareholding in Curro.[10] Curro's leadership began working with Jannie Mouton, founder of PSG Group, which brought in a team of chartered accountants to Curro, to share business insights.[1]
In June 2011, when Curro Holdings was listed on the Alternative Exchange (AltX) of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the company stated that its goal was to have 40 schools and an enrollment of 45,000 by 2020.[11] At the time, Curro had a market capitalization of R400 million.[1]
In 2013, Curro moved into the tertiary education environment and acquired Embury,[12] a private teacher education institution.
In 2017, Stadio, a former subsidiary of Curro, was unbundled and incorporated as its own entity, focused on tertiary education. It listed on the JSE Limited as Stadio Holdings, and Curro founder Chris van der Merwe agreed to run the new entity for three years, at PSG Group's request.[1]
Curro Online was launched in 2020, in response to Covid 19.[13]
As of February 2025, Curro’s enrollment numbers were just over 72,000.[14]
Operations
Curro operates the following educational divisions:[5]
Curro Castles (nursery schools)
Curro schools
Curro Academy schools
Curro Select schools
Curro assisted-learning schools
Curro DigiEd schools
Curro private colleges
Curro Online
Meridian schools
As of 2025, Curro operates a total of 189 schools, located on 81 different campuses.[1]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
R5.09 billion (2024) [4]