Exclusive: Cuemath scores $40 Mn in Series C round; valuation crosses $170 Mn

Edtech companies have been on a roll since the beginning of this year and the pandemic has increased their adoption multifold. After Byju’s, Unacademy, Toppr and Vedantu, Cuemath has now managed to raise Rs 297.1 crore or $40 million in its Series C round co-led by Lightstone Fund (LGT Lightstone Aspada) and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation.

The fresh round for the Bengaluru-based firm has come after a year. Last December, Cuemath had raised $5.5 million in an extended Series B round led by Manta Ray Ventures. In September, Entrackr had exclusively reported that Cuemath was in late-stage talks with Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) to raise $40 million. 

Cuemath has passed a special resolution to allot 200 equity shares and 144,618 Series C CCPS at an issue price of Rs 20,518.56 per share to raise the amount. Lightstone Fund has invested Rs 126.3 crore followed by AWI which pumped in Rs 111.43 crore, regulatory filings show. 

Existing investors Google’s venture capital fund Capital G and Sequoia have also poured in Rs 37.14 crore and Rs 7.42 crore respectively. The edtech firm has also raised Rs 14.86 crore from Manta Ray Ventures in this round.

Cuemath provides after-school math classes and uses physical worksheets, quiz cards with other tablet-based in-house content. With 5,000 franchises in India, Cuemath claims to have conducted 25 million classes for over 100,000 students in the country. 

The firm has also launched a digital platform Cuemath LEAP for children from grade 7 to 10. According to the company, its digital platform grew four-fold in the past six-eight months and has over 500,000 hours of live classes. 

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, Cuemath’s post-money valuation has reached around Rs 1,265 crore or $171 million in this transaction. 

The fresh proceeds are crucial for Cuemath that didn’t raise back to back rounds like its peers Byju’s and Unacademy. The round is likely to help the company to double down on its growth and build robust technological capabilities. 

The coronavirus pandemic has brought a massive change in learning habits and triggered a hockey stick kind of demand curve for edtech solutions in India. As a result, venture capitalists and large investors across the globe have been queuing up to fund local edtech companies. 

While Byju’s had managed to raise over $1.2 billion in 2020, Unacademy had touched $2 billion in valuation in November. Vedantu, ClassPlus, Toppr also scored sizable rounds in the ongoing calendar year. According to Entrackr’s sources, Vedantu and ClassPlus are in conversation with fresh and existing backers to raise follow-on rounds.