Sequoia India Led $40 Mn Series C Funding Round In Edtech Company Eruditus

Edtech company the Eruditus group which runs Eruditus Executive Education and its online division Emeritus has raised $40Mn (INR 281 Cr) in a Series C funding round which was led by Sequoia India. The round also saw participation from existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments.

The company will use this funding to increase its course offerings in technical subjects such as data science, machine learning, blockchain and cybersecurity. It also plans to expand its language offerings to include Portuguese and Mandarin, in addition to English and Spanish.

“We will use the proceeds of this latest fundraise to create a more immersive and adaptive learning platform, to expand our multilingual capabilities, and to ensure that our omnichannel offerings are readily available to our students on-the-go,” said Ashwin Damera, cofounder of Eruditus and director at Emeritus.

Eruditus: Targeting A 10X Hike In Student Enrollment

Eruditus, founded in 2010 by Chaitanya Kalipatnapu and Ashwin Damera, provides executive education programmes in association with global business schools such as MIT, Columbia, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, Tuck at Dartmouth, Wharton, UC Berkeley and London Business School.

These programs are held for six to eight months and can be available via on campus, off campus and online modes.

The company is looking to enroll 30K students from more than 80 countries in the current financial year. It also aims to increase its enrollment by more than 10 times within the next five years across certificate courses and online degrees.

Eruditus had earlier raised $8.16 Mn (INR 57.4 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments in 2017. Earlier in July, it had raised $2.2 Mn (INR 16 Cr) in a debt financing round from Innoven Capital.

Edtech Funding In India

The edtech sector has been recently gaining popularity among the investors. In 2017, edtech witnessed a 30% hike in terms of investments with international funding touching a new record of $9.52 Bn (INR 67,010 Cr).

Last month, Hyderabad-based edtech startup Toppr has raised funding of $35 Mn (INR 246.13 Cr) from Kaizen Private Equity and existing investors SAIF Partners, Helion Ventures, Kaizen PE and Eight Roads Ventures.

Edtech unicorn BYJU’S raised $540 Mn (INR 3,800 Cr) in Series F funding from Canada Pension board’s investment arm CPPIB Investment Board Private Holdings, Naspers Ventures BV and General Atlantic Singapore TL Pvt Ltd, boosting its valuation to $4 Bn (INR 28,155 Cr).

According to a report by the India Didactics Association, the online education industry in India is projected to grow almost eight times to hit $1.96 Bn (INR 13,795 Cr) by 2021. It also added that the number of paid users in the segment is expected to grow six-fold to reach 9.6 Bn by 2021.

A report by Google-KPMG said that reskilling and online certification courses accounted for about 38% of the total online education market as of 2017.