While many businesses are struggling to operate due to the lockdown and the COVID-19 crisis, edtech companies are shining as schools and other educational institutions are shut and students have no option but to rely on online learning.
The segment has been in focus for the past year and is evident from large funding rounds in BYJU’s and Unacademy. Vedantu also had raised three rounds in a row since November last year. And, it has just scored another round worth $7 million from KB Global.
The South Korean fund has joined Vedantu’s ongoing Series C2 round, reveals regulatory filings. Vedantu has allotted 3,82,235 Series C2 CCPS shares for Rs 1363.3 each. The new tranche has come within two weeks of its $10 million fund infusion from China’s Legend Capital.
As per Source’s calculation, the estimated valuation of Vedantu has now reached $280 million (Rs 2,104.5 crore) post the latest infusion.
Taking this round, the 10-year old firm has raised $83 million in the past five months. Tiger Global led a $2 million round in November last year while Chinese VC heavyweight GGV Capital led a $24 million worth round in February.
Venture debt provider Innoven Capital is also set to join the ongoing round with an investment close to Rs 1 crore. However, no allotment has been made yet.
Founded by Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena, and Anand Prakash,
Vedantu’s primary business is live classes for grades one to 12th. It also provides live streaming and interactive sessions for NTSE, PSA, KVPY, IMO, JEE Mains including other competitive exams.
Following this round, Accel remains the biggest stakeholder in Vedantu with a 16.75% stake while China’s newest edtech firm The Advanced Learning (TAL) Group controls 14.35%. Tiger Global and Omidyar Network own 13.69% and 12.66% stake respectively. KB Global has acquired 2.48% of the firm after this investment.
Vedantu’s three co-founders hold 3.23% each while 12.24% stake remains earmarked for employee stock options.
Byju’s was valued at about $8.2 billion in the last round while Unacademy crossed a $510 million valuation mark in February 2020. Another edtech startup Toppr was reportedly valued at around $150-200 million during a $35 million funding round in December 2018.