VEDANTU RAISES $100 MN, JOINS UNICORN CLUB
Vedantu, the pioneer in live online tutoring, has raised $100 million in its Series E round, led by Singaporebased impact investing fund ABC World Asia. The round also saw strong participation from existing investors – Coatue, Tiger Global, GGV Capital and Westbridge, among others. The Bengaluru-based edtech firm has been valued at $1 billion in the latest round of funding, making it the newest member of the coveted unicorn club.
Vedantu, the pioneer in live online tutoring, has raised $100 million in its Series E round, led by Singaporebased impact investing fund ABC World Asia. The round also saw strong participation from existing investors – Coatue, Tiger Global, GGV Capital and Westbridge, among others.
The Bengaluru-based edtech firm has been valued at $1 billion in the latest round of funding, making it the newest member of the coveted unicorn club. It is the 28th start-up to achieve unicorn status in 2021 alone. It is now the fifth such edtech firm in India. The funding also underlines Vedantu’s status as the largest K-12 Live online tutoring company in India.
The funds will be primarily used to strengthen product engineering functions as well as expanding into newer categories through both organic and inorganic routes. It would also help it to compete with edtech players such as Byju’s, Unacademy, Simplilearn, Upgrad and Amazon Academy. This funding will also help it tap the country's $180 billion education sector that has gone online to adapt to the new reality.
Vamsi Krishna, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Vedantu, said the firm is also planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) by 2024.
“We want to create a company that outlasts our lives and continues to innovate for decades to come,” said Krishna. “Our vision is simple: Unleash the potential in every child. We will continue to innovate to reach as many students as possible and create 10x better experiences and outcomes for every child at Vedantu.”
Vedantu’s latest round will close over the next few weeks, with more investors joining in subsequent tranches. The Rainmaker Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Vedantu on its fundraising.
Challenging the status quo in India’s K-12 tutoring space, Vedantu was the first company to offer Live online classes in 2014 and is credited with creating the category. It has continued to be a pioneer in this space with several firsttime innovations that include ‘Wave’, its proprietary Live teaching platform, and the 2teacher model.
Both these innovations are playing a big role in improving student outcomes for the company. Some of the company’s innovations have been granted patents in the US. The company looks to continue to innovate further on the Live teaching format and penetrate deeper in the K-12 segment by reaching more students.
Today, Vedantu offers tutoring courses to young students from 3 years old to 18 years old, as well as preparation for competitive exams such as IIT-JEE, NEET, CBSE, ICSE, and state exams such as Maharashtra boards. Through its newest offering and fastestgrowing vertical, Superkids, it offers extracurricular classes like English speaking, reading, and coding.
An alumnus of Iitbombay, Krishna has been a teacher for over 10 years and has now emerged as a seasoned edtech expert.