Pearson, Village Capital Offer $75,000 Funding to Indian ‘Edupreneurs’

The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) and US-based innovative funding firm Village Capital have joined hands to boost and invest in education entrepreneurs that are serving under-privileged students in India. The selected entrepreneurs, after peer review and assessment by fellow entrepreneurs, will get funding up to $75,000 funding.

Pearson launched the Affordable Learning Fund last July with an initial $15 million capital. Basically, the fund invests in low-cost private schools and other affordable educational solutions and services in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Under the PALF -Village Capital partnership program, Person will work with Village Capital to offer Indian entrepreneurs the chance to receive seed investment, where about 16 startups will participate in workshops this autumn that includes mentoring advice from other entrepreneurs, investors and professionals.

These entrepreneurs will then assess one another against six criteria with the top two ranking companies receiving up to $75,000 each. For this initiative, Affordable Learning Fund and Village Capital have committed $100,000 and $50,000 funds respectively.

Helping India’s poorest

The programme is restricted to ‘edupreneurs’ operating in India who serve students at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, the term coined by the late author and Pearson Director C.K. Prahalad. Seeking market-based solutions to major problems facing education for the poor, edupreneurs are open to for-profit startup firms, both technology and non-technology companies. Ranu Kawatra, CEO and resident of Pearson Education India says in the announcement:

The program underscores our commitment to quality education in the country. Through this we hope to reach out to the brilliant minds who have the knowledge and the dedication to make a substantial difference in the domain of education and learning at the grass-root level.

The Affordable Learning Fund will send a staff member to serve as programme manager for the workshops, to provide expertise on subjects ranging from measuring and interpreting learning outcomes to supply chain and marketing. According to Katelyn Donnelly, executive director of the Affordable Learning Fund:

We are thrilled to bring this programme to entrepreneurs striving to develop businesses that enhance outcomes and access for low-income learners in India. We’ve seen a lack of early support and risk capital in the low cost education space and we are pleased to take the lead in creating a robust ecosystem for impact-oriented edupreneurs and incubate innovative models of education to dramatically improve learning at scale.

Worldwide experience

Identifying the best startups for investment is a difficult and cost-intensive process for investors. Village Capital will help in identifying the best startups for investment and it specialises in using the power of peer support and mentoring to build investment-ready companies and to allocate capital through peer selection. According to Village Capital’s executive director Ross Baird, the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund is at the cutting edge of innovation worldwide.

We’re incredibly excited to combine Pearson’s education expertise with our peer review model to drive greater impact in learning outcomes. In our experience launching 20 programs in India, US, UK, Kenya and Brazil, entrepreneurs investing in each other uncover innovations no one would have anticipated and universally engage in the process in an astoundingly collegial and disciplined way.