EdTech firm Vedantu is in conversations to raise $100 million in a financing round led by US inventor Coatue Management. If the company executes the round successfully, they will reach a valuation of $600 million as told by multiple sources. This development comes post Silicon Valley investor and analyst Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital invested in Byju’s at a $10.5-billion valuation.
Post this round, online live tutoring platform Vedantu will have twice as valuation as its previous round led by Tiger Global and WestBridge Capital last year. New York-based Coatue is a known technology investor, having backed Uber, Meituan Dianping and DoorDash globally, along with bets on Swiggy and Rebel Foods in India. Others in the EdTech sector are also capitalizing on the positive sentiment.
EdTech firms are a few of the businesses that are making huge profits out of the lockdown imposed due to the deadly coronavirus. Unacademy and Whitehat Jr, other startups in the education technology field are also reportedly raising money from a bunch of investors.
On one hand where startups continue to reduce their work force and process pay cuts, EdTech firms are flourishing more than ever on other. “Finally, Indian VCs have found a sector that has real revenues and high gross margins. The excitement around it is justified. However, the valuations are way ahead of reality and are likely to cause some real concerns in future. VCs who manage to sell secondary shares along the way will see good returns,” an investor specialized in the field stated on condition of anonymity.
Vedantu claimed that its platform saw a surge in the number of subscribers of 1.1 million with 80% increase in revenue. It also recently invested $2 million in doubt-solving platform Instasolv to reach the Tier II and Tier III markets. A company spokesperson said that their user base is increase five-fold every month.