Bengaluru-based online live tutoring company Vedantu has raised $100 million in a fresh funding round to create the world’s best teaching-learning experience.
The Series D round was led by New York-based investment firm Coatue with participation from existing investors including Tiger Global, GGV Capital, Westbridge Capital and Omidyar Network among others. According to its press statement, the new round has pushed the company’s valuation to $600 million, making it the second most valued company in the Indian edtech space.
Started in 2014, Vedantu offers LIVE interactive classes to students across grades K-12, for all major boards and top competitive exams like JEE and NEET. It offers individual and group classes delivered by experienced teachers in a LIVE real-time, virtual learning environment. The company’s indigenous platform, which captures 70+ parameters, helps drive high engagement and interaction in a virtual class, and give students their personalized learning reports to help them understand the knowledge gaps.
Vedantu claims over 1 million students study LIVE every month on its platform and more than 25 million users from over 1000 cities in India and 40+ countries access free content, tests, doubts, and videos on Vedantu’s platform, and its channels on YouTube every month.
Commenting on the funding and how it will use the new capital, Vamsi Krishna, Co-Founder and CEO, Vedantu, said,
“Vedantu has always believed in the concept of LIVE interactive classes being a superior format for online learning which creates greater learning outcomes. During lockdown, everyone is talking about LIVE classes and it is the best time for us to drive more adoption and strengthen our brand as the best destination for LIVE classes. On top of adding new categories, we will use the funds to invest into content and technology to create the world’s best LIVE teaching-learning experience.”
Vedantu has also entered the early learner segment with the launch of its coding program for 6-12 years called Vedantu SuperKids. It has plans of launching more programs in this category. The company said it has recorded a growth of 220% during lockdown with more than 2 million students attending LIVE classes and teachers delivering over 8 million hours of LIVE classes.
With this definitive shift in consumer behavior from offline to online, Vedantu said it is investing to scale impact, expand into new categories, and establish itself as the leading brand in the online LIVE tutoring space.
Rahul Kishore, Managing Director, Coatue, also commented on the investment saying,
“Online learning adoption in India is at an all-time high setting a new benchmark for the rest of the world. As we continue to focus on driving high-growth ventures, our investment in Vedantu marks our entry into the Indian EdTech market. This move underlines our strategy to partner with companies that are strategically positioned for high growth & scale. We are excited to partner Vedantu in their next stage of growth.”
Meanwhile, this is Vedantu’s third round of funding in the last 12 months. Earlier, the company has raised $12.56 million in extended Series C round led by Legend Capital in April 2020, an additional $24 million in February, and $42 million in August 2019. Vedantu said with the latest round, its total fundraise has crossed $200 million.
