Tiger Global and Westbridge Capital lead $42 Mn round in Vedantu

Tiger Global has been aggressive on investment-front of late, and at the same time, while doing so, it looks to keep the balance of its investment portfolio between B2C and B2B startups. 

Soon after pouring in huge capital in three consumer-focused startups, UrbanClap, INDwealth and Interviewbit Academy, the New York-based hedge fund along with Westbridge Capital, has led $42 million round in edtech startup Vedantu.

Existing investors Accel, Omidyar India and TAL Education and Vedantu co-founders also participating in the Series C round. Till date, the company has raised $58 million.

The valuation of the Bengaluru-based startup couldn't be ascertained.

The fresh proceeds will be used to ramp up the engineering team and product offerings besides, enhancing technology and platform.

A brainchild of Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena, and Anand Prakash, Vedantu enables live learning session between teachers and students.

It generates revenue from selling a subscription ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 5,000 to live and interactive sessions. It offers monthly tuitions, exam preparation for NTSE, PSA, KVPY, IMO, JEE Mains.

About 15 million users access free content on its platform, while 150,000 pay for the subscription. The edtech firm has been able to crack tier-II and beyond the market. Its 80% of free content users are from tier II and smaller cities, while 55% of its paid users are from small towns.

The Vedantu app is operational in close to 100 cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.

In Indian edtech space, Byju's and Unacademy have gone beyond Series C round. While Byju's has become the only edtech unicorn from India and now valued at over $5.5 billion, the tussle amongst other startups to notch up the 2nd position will be interesting to watch.

For Tiger Global, Vedantu would be 8th bet in B2C segment in 2019. Apart from the startups mentioned above, it has invested in Ola Electric, Cred, Grofers and TVF in consumer internet space. 

The development was reported by TechCrunch.