This article discusses the conducting of professional development of teachers working in basic education in the Municipal Education System of Florianópolis (RMEF – its acronym in Portuguese) by private companies, through analysis of data from doctoral research in progress. The study is grounded in historical and dialectical materialism. The methodological procedure used was a mapping of political networks, based on companies contracted by the municipality. This article supports the view that the professional development of teachers of the RMEF, guided by private entities, is part of the so-called “new-type privatization” (FALLEIROS; NEVES, 2015), usurping the public fund in the context of financialization of capital. This has repercussions on the limits of democratization of education, in which professional development of teachers is promoted through public-private partnerships, disseminating the values and political and ideological assumptions of the business community.