Edtech’s sensational rise in the pandemic is well-documented by now and it has outnumbered other sectors in terms of raising funds. After Byju’s, Classplus, and upGrad, Vedantu is now in talks to raise a fresh round from new and existing investors, said three people aware of the details. This would be the maiden fundraiser for the Bengaluru-based company in 2021.
“Several new investors including Owl Ventures are in conversations to lead a $150 million new round in Vedantu,” said one of the people requesting anonymity. “Existing investors including Coatue, Tiger Global, and Accel would also participate.” The talks, however, are at an early stage and no term sheet has been given yet, reported Entrackr.
“Vedantu is seeking a valuation of $1 billion in the fresh round. However, investors are not keen to value it over $800 million,” said the second person who also wished not to be named as talks are yet to be public. It’s unclear if the company will in fact be valued at $1 billion or not in this round.
Founded in 2011, Vedantu is an Indian online tutoring platform where teachers provide tuitions to students over the internet, using a real-time virtual learning environment named WAVE (Whiteboard Audio Video Environment) a technology built in-house. It is said to operate on a marketplace model for teachers, where students can browse, discover and choose to learn from an online tutor.
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Vedantu’s core offering covers online classes from grade 6 to 12 along with materials from grade 1 to 12 and JEE. The company also ventured into the kid’s coding space (age bracket 6-12) in May 2020.
The talks for the new round for Vedantu have come at a time when several edtech companies such as Unacademy is set to mop up $450 million led by Temasek. Classplus is also in late-stage talks to corner $25 million from Tiger Global whereas Eruditus is reportedly in talks to raise a new round at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
Founded by Vamsi Krishna, Anand Prakash, Pulkit Jain, and Saurabh Saxena, Vedantu had posted operating revenue of Rs 25 crore during FY20. While its revenue grew by 69% in FY20, the company’s expenses shot up to the tune of 5.9X to Rs 196 crore.
