Ananth Narayanan, Ronnie Screwvala join Lido Learning’s Series A round

Online classroom platform Lido Learning has raised $3 million in a Series A funding round from Ronnie Screwvala, promoter of education platform Upgrad, and Ananth Narayanan, chief executive at e-pharmacy Medlife, among other HNI (high networth individual) investors.

JK Tyres managing director Vikrampati Singhania, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal and Patni Wealth Advisors managing director Arihant Patni were some of the other investors in the round, the startup said in a statement.

Founded in April 2019 by  Sahil Sheth, Lido Learning is a platform that sets up live small-group tuition online for students between classes 5 and 9, with features such as interactive sessions, engaging quizzes and immersive games. Every session has a maximum student to teacher ratio of 6:1, the company claimed.

In September, Sheth, former vice president at Bengaluru-based edtech unicorn Byju’s, made news when he was booked under provisions of the Indian Penal Code 1860 and Information Technology Act 2000 for allegedly obtaining confidential files from a different elearning company’s servers, one run by Adam Khorakiwala (co-founder at Zico Learning and mGuru). These files included the education content, product designs, hiring documents, process documents, and other core company intellectual property, according to several media reports.

India's online education market is set to grow to $1.96 billion and around 9.6 million users by 2021 from $247 million and around 1.6 million users in 2016, according to a 2017 study carried out by KPMG and Google.

Separately, another report global market research firm Technavio attributes the poised growth in online tutoring services market in India to the burgeoning competition and rising demand for the preparation of entrance exams for higher education.

The rise in awareness among students as well as parents about education has led to an increase in the expenditure on online tutoring. The report projected a 16% rise in CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the years of 2018 to 2022.

Recent developments in the sector:

• Noida-based exam preparation platform Gradeup raised $7 million in its Series A funding round from Times Internet (TIL), a subsidiary of media house Bennett Coleman and Co.
• Delhi-based Classplus, provider of software solutions for coaching centres and tutors, raised an undisclosed amount from early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures.
• Mumbai based gaming and digital sports media firm Nazara Technologies has invested $11.7 million in Paper Boat Apps, the holding company of preschool edutainment app Kiddopia, in exchange for a majority stake in the company.
• Bengaluru-based e-learning platform AttainU raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from former Google India head Shailesh Rao, ex-Intuit India head Nikhil Rungta and entrepreneurs Anil Gelra and Manish Kumar.