Embibe Is Raising INR 500 Cr From Parent Company Reliance

As the edtech ecosystem gets busier with the pandemic limiting students to their homes, startups are busy securing fresh funds to keep the momentum going. The latest among edtech players raising funds is Bengaluru-based edtech startup Embibe.

The company has raised INR 30 Cr from its parent company Reliance Industries and is raising another INR 500 Cr as well. According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, Embibe on March 11, passed a board resolution to issue 5 Mn shares at a nominal value of INR 1 with a premium of INR 999 worth INR 500 Cr from Reliance Industries.

Of this, the company has already received INR 30 Cr infusion on March 31. The offer has been floated to meet the project expenses and other general corporate purposes.

Founded in 2012 by Aditi Avasthi, Embibe is an edtech company and leverages AI-based data analytics to personalise learning outcomes. It targets students across K-12, higher education, professional skilling, vernacular languages and all curriculum categories across India and abroad.

With AI stacks focussed on content intelligence and automation, behavioural recommendations, and student intelligence, Embibe is a personalised platform for students and teachers to learn and interact with the help of engaging content.

Reliance agreed to invest over $180 Mn into Embibe over the next three years in 2018. This was dubbed as one of the biggest acquisition bids in the edtech and deeptech space in India. The company’s previous investors included Kalaari Capital and Lightbox.

In the last two-three years, there has been a significant increase in the investments flowing towards the edtech sector. According to DataLabs by Inc42, there were 3,500 edtech startups in India in 2018. Between 2014 and 2019, a total of $1.802 Bn was raised by edtech startups across 303 deals.

As per DataLabs analysis, test prep and K-12 edtech startups combined are estimated to be worth $1.3 Bn by 2021, which means that the Indian edtech market will not be seeing any major changes in terms of the hottest sectors.

Update: April 9, 2020 | 5: 23 PM
The story originally erroneously said that Embibe is based in Mumbai, it has been updated to clarify that it is Bengaluru based. The error is deeply regretted.