Mumbai-based edtech startup Eruditus has raised ₹280 crores ($40 million) in series C round of funding from Sequoia India along with participation from existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments. The startup plans to use the freshly raised capital to increase its course portfolio in sectors like machine learning, blockchain and data science.
“Seventy per cent of our students are based outside of the United States, and this fundraiser will help accelerate our mission of making high-quality professional education more accessible and affordable,” said Ashwin Damera, Co-founder, Eruditus.
The startup will also expand its language offerings to include Portuguese and Mandarin in addition to currently available Spanish and English.
G V Ravishankar, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said, “Sequoia India has been an active investor in the education space over the last several years, and is excited to partner with Eruditus, a startup that is using technology to bring cutting-edge, industry-ratified education programs to consumers at scale.”
The startup has partnered with top tier European and American universities which facilitates the provision of high-quality executive education courses and short private lessons to working professionals. Eruditus has already achieved a 10X student growth in the last two years of operations.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor for the transaction.
Pankaj Naik, Co-head of Digital and Technology Investment Banking, Avendus Capital, said, “Eruditus represents an emerging trend of outstanding entrepreneurs that are building successful international businesses from India. This transaction also validates rapid value creation opportunities in the edtech sector.”
Eruditus plans to enrol as much as 30,000 new students from 80 countries worldwide this year. The courses are tailor-made according to industry needs and are facilitated by university partners like MIT, Columbia, Harvard Business School, Tuck at Dartmouth, Wharton, London Business School, INSEAD and UC Berkley.
