$100 mn fundraise propels Vedantu into unicorn club

BENGALURU: Vedantu became the fifth edtech in India to attain the so-called unicorn status after the online tutoring platform raised $100 million, reflecting elevated investor interest in the edtech space following the pandemic.

Bengaluru-based Vedantu made the fundraise in a Series E round led by Singapore-based ABC World Asia. The funding round, which also saw the participation of existing investors Coatue, Tiger Global and GGV Capital, turned the startup into a unicorn or companies that are valued at at least $1 billion.

While the round is largely closed, it may see minor participation of $5-10 million from new investors, Vedantu’s chief executive Vamsi Krishna said in an interview on Wednesday.

Vedantu is the 28th Indian startup to become a unicorn in 2021. This year alone, higher learning and upskilling platforms Eruditus and UpGrad joined the country’s unicorn club. Further, companies such as Byju’s and Unacademy have almost doubled their valuations over the past year.

Vedantu plans to use the proceeds of the capital raise to double down on the kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) learning segment, while looking to diversify its extracurricular course offerings and expand internationally. The 11-year-old startup focuses on providing live tutoring courses to students aged 3 to 18 years. It also offers test preparation for competitive exams such as IIT-JEE, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), and school boards such as Central Board of Secondary Education of India (CBSE), Indian School Certificate Examinations (ICSE), and state exams such as Maharashtra boards.