Edtech firm Vedantu raises $42 million

Online tutoring platform Vedantu has raised $42 million in Series C funding round led by Tiger Global and WestBridge Capital. Existing investors Accel, Omidyar India, and TAL Education also participated in the round, which was announced on Friday. The funding round also saw participation from Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein, who is CEO of LGT Group, a family-owned private banking and asset management group.

The Bengaluru-based company said that the funds raised would be utilised to scale operations, expand its learner base as well as deepen investment in tech and content capabilities.

Through its digital platform, Vedantu offers live and interactive tutoring for students from 6th to 12th grade, covering all major subjects and school boards like CBSE, ICSE, and International Baccalaureate. It offers both individual and group classes and is presently engaging with learners in 1,000-plus cities across 30 countries. Its platform sees 15 million users accessing free content every month, while over 500 teachers provide live tutorials to 150,000 students per month.

“Vedantu’s founders have built a rare digital destination with a highly differentiated product with the potential to create impact at scale with a sustainable business model,” says Sandeep Singhal, managing director, Westbridge Capital. “We look forward to partnering them in their next phase of growth as they build India’s premier K-12 ed-tech business.”

According to Vamsi Krishna, CEO and co-founder, Vedantu, students utilise online learning to augment other forms of academic preparation. With Vedantu, he says, “We want to turn this around and make live classes a genuine alternative to offline coaching and tuition classes. Today, 30% of our students are using Vedantu as their only source of learning and this is just the beginning.” Given the competition in the educational technology space, Krishna adds, “Our product is our core differentiator where we offer a full-stack solution with better quality teachers at affordable prices.”

Vedantu recently launched W.A.V.E— a personalised and interactive, one-to-many online learning platform through which students can interact with teachers, solve their doubts, and participate in gamified quizzes. On the other hand, teachers receive constant feedback based on which they can to customise their teaching patterns.

“Vedantu has been the first to reimagine the concept of tutorials in the country and create an exponential shift towards the online live tutoring model,” says Anand Daniel, partner, Accel Partners. “Vamsi and team are extremely focused on improving the educational outcomes of students using their unique online offering and we are excited to continue partnering with them on this journey.”