Vedantu becomes India’s third edtech unicorn this year with $100m raise

Vedantu, an India-based live tutoring platform, has secured US$100 million at a valuation of over US$1 billion in its series E round. It became the third Indian edtech firm to join the unicorn club this year after Emeritus and upGrad.

Vedantu co-founders (from left) Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash and Vamsi Krishna / Photo credit: Vedantu

Byju’s and Unacademy are the other edtech firms with billion-dollar valuations in the country.

Vedantu will use the fresh funds to strengthen its product engineering and expand into newer categories through both organic and inorganic routes. The company also has plans to enter international markets, including Southeast Asia, the US, and Canada in the next 12 to 15 months, Vamsi Krishna, CEO and co-founder of Vedantu, told Tech in Asia.

The edtech unicorn also has plans to go public in the next two to three years, revealed Krishna. “As Vedantu co-founders, we have always had the dream of creating a company which continues to innovate and sustain beyond our lives. So an IPO (initial public offering) is obviously one of the pit stops,” Krishna said.

Vedantu’s latest funding round was led by ABC World Asia, a Singapore-based impact investing fund. The round also saw participation from existing investors Coatue, Tiger Global, GGV Capital, and Westbridge, among others.

The development comes over a month later after Vedantu denied reports suggesting the company was in talks to be acquired by Indian edtech major Byju’s for around US$700 million to US$800 million.

Vedantu offers tutoring courses to students aged between three and 18, as well as preparation modules for competitive exams. Through its new offering, SuperKids, it offers extracurricular classes on coding as well as speaking and reading in English.

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The Bangalore-based startup has over 35 million monthly active users, and 200,000 paying customers, the company says.