Coatue Management leads $100 mn growth funding round in Vedantu

Bengaluru headquartered Vedantu Innovations, which operates an eponymous online tutoring company for the K-12 segment, said it has raised $100 million in a growth funding round, led by technology sector hedge fund Coatue Management. 

Returning investors Tiger Global, Accel, GGV Capital, Omidyar Network and Legend Capital participated in the round, according to a statement.

The current round values the edtech firm at $600 million, the statement said, adding that Vedantu has raised over $200 million across multiple rounds so far. 

Since last year, the firm raised an extended Series C round totalling to more than $85.5 million. It received the last tranche in April, when KB Global Platform Fund infused $6.8 million in it. 

Vedantu will deploy the fresh capital to scale and expand its core area of live classes, the statement said. Earlier this year, it made a $2 million strategic investment in doubt solving app Instasolv. 

“During lockdown, everyone is talking about live classes. It is the best time for us to drive more adoption and strengthen our brand to be the best destination for live classes. On top of adding new categories, we will use the funds to invest into content and technology,” Vamsi Krishna, CEO of Vedantu, said.

He founded the company in 2011 with Anand Prakash and Pulkit Jain, along with Saurabh Saxena, who exited the company in 2018. Vedantu claims to conduct live classes for over a million students every month and says its free content library is accessed by over 25 million users across 40 countries on a monthly basis. The company added that it had witnessed a 220% growth during lockdown. 

“Online learning adoption in India is at an all-time high, setting a new benchmark for the rest of the world. As we continue to focus on driving high growth ventures, our investment in Vedantu marks our entry into the Indian edtech market,” Rahul Kishore, managing director at Coatue Management, said. As part of the deal, Kishore will join the Vedantu board. 

The move towards digital learning and online classes due to Covid-19 related lockdown has translated into strong investor interest and consolidation in the edtech space. In June, Bond Capital invested $100 million in Byju’s, valuing it at $10.5 billion. Test prep platform Unacademy, which is said to be in talks to raise $150 million in fresh funding, acquired medical post graduate entrance exam platform PrepLadder for $50 million earlier this month, followed by a majority stake in K-12 learning platform Mastree.