Indian edtech company Eruditus has raised $150 million in a new funding round. Led by TPG Rise, a US-based private equity fund, Eruditus’ Series F round, which included participation from existing backers such as Softbank, Leeds Illuminate, Accel, CPP Investments and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, was raised at a valuation of $3 billion.
While TPG Rise has invested $100 million in the edtech firm, SoftBank has contributed a further $20 million, according to a report in the Economic Times.
Eruditus’ co-founder and CEO, Ashwin Damera, told Reuters that with the fresh funding, the company plans to prioritise building AI-powered tools to improve teaching experiences, expand its enterprise course offerings, and strengthen its presence in the Indian market, especially as it explores the possibility of going public in India in the future.
“Today, India for us is about 28% of our overall business, and over the next five years, I would love to see India be at least 50% of what we do,” Reuters quoted Damera as saying.
Following the fundraising, Eruditus will initiate the process of relocating its domicile from Singapore to India, he added.
More about Eruditus
Founded in 2010 by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu, Eruditus collaborates with over 80 top-tier universities across the US, Europe, Latin America, India, Southeast Asia, and China to offer short courses, degree programmes, professional certificates, and other senior executive programmes.
In the financial year ending June 2024, the company had a revenue of Rs 3,800 crore and is expected to surpass Rs 5,000 crore by next June, Damera told ET.
However, Damera did not provide a timeline for the company’s listing. “We have to ask ourselves what’s the right time for us as a company (for an IPO), we just have a new investor. We’ll have a discussion, we’re not dying to go public right away. We still have a lot of things to build and do,” he told Reuters.
Are Indian edtech firms struggling?
According to the Reuters report, the Indian edtech sector is encountering significant challenges, having raised only $419 million this year — a sharp decline from the $5.37 billion raised in 2021, as noted by information provider Tracxn.
With Byju’s US entity filing for bankruptcy in February 2024 and layoffs occurring at edtech companies like Unacademy and Scaler, the future of edtech appears uncertain. However, amid this turmoil, edtech firm Physics Wallah successfully raised $210 million last month.
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