Vedantu Expected To Enter Unicorn Club With Potential $100 Mn Funding

Bengaluru-based online tutoring startup Vedantu is in advanced talks to raise $100 Mn which would make it the fifth Indian edtech unicorn. 

According to a report by Moneycontrol, approximately $60 Mn will be contributed by existing investors Coatue Management, GGV Capital and Tiger Global Management, while an Asian private equity fund is expected to invest the remaining $40 Mn. 

Founded in 2014 by Vamsi Krishna, Anand Prakash, and Pulkit Jain, Vedantu is an interactive online tutoring platform that enables teachers to provide tuition to school students over the internet. The edtech startup uses a proprietary real-time virtual learning environment named WAVE. The startup says that WAVE has come up with more than 70 parameters that facilitate the whole learning process.

Vedantu had recorded a growth of 220% during the early months of the  lockdown with more than 2 Mn students attending live classes and teachers delivering 8 Mn+ hours of LIVE classes. During the pandemic, Vedantu entered the early learner segment with the launch of its coding program for 6-12 years called Vedantu SuperKids.  The company has plans of launching more programs in this category.

It primarily targets the K-12 segment and boasts of 1.5 lakh students on its live learning platform. Vedantu claims that around 40 Mn students access free content through its various channels including YouTube where the ‘Vedantu class 9 &10’ channel has more than 1.46 Mn subscribers. Earlier this year, Vedantu acquired doubt solving app Instasolv for an undisclosed amount. In FY20, Vedantu posted a revenue of INR 35.8 Cr, but its losses grew by 6x to INR 158.5 Cr. The startup spent about INR 194.3 Cr to earn an operating revenue of INR 24.6 Cr in FY20.

The company has raised about $190.9 Mn from marquee investors, including Accel, Tiger Global, WestBridge Capital, Omidyar Network, GGV Capital and KB Global Platform Fund. It was valued at $600 Mn in the $100 Mn Series D funding round raised in July 2020. The round was led by US-based investment firm Coatue.

The edtech sector is currently home to four unicorns namely, BYJU’s, Unacademy, UpGrad and Eruditus. Eruditus was the latest company to cross a valuation of $1Bn, as it raised $650 Mn funding led by Accel US and Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank Vision Fund II.

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