Exclusive: Newton School raises Rs 37 Cr in Series A at Rs 150 Cr valuation

Income sharing based online coding trainer platform Newton School has raised Rs 36.64 crore in its Series A round led by early-stage VC firm RTP Global. Nexus Ventures, AngelList along with seven individuals also participated in the round.

Newton School has allotted 5,964 Series A preference shares at an issue price of Rs 61,627 per share to raise the sum, regulatory filings show. RTP Global has infused Rs 22 crore and Nexus put in Rs 9.15 crore. 

Existing investor AngeList participated in the tranche with an investment of Rs 1 crore. It’s worth noting that the early-stage deal sourcing platform is also an investor in Newton’s competition Masai School. This is the second investment round for Newton School. It had raised $650K from Nexus and several angels in September last year.

Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini and Hemesh Singh, who are early backers of Newton School, have collectively invested Rs 40.18 lakh whereas Udaan’s co-founder Sujeet Kumar has poured in Rs 73.27 lakh. 

Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham has also participated in the round with Rs 73.27 lakh while CRED’s founder Kunal Shah has invested Rs 36.63 lakh. Singapore-based Redbrook also infused Rs 73.27 lakh.

According to Fintrackr’s estimate, the company has been valued at a little over Rs 149.5 crore in the Series A round. Following the fresh infusion, existing backer Nexus controls 25.72% whereas RTP Global has acquired 15% ownership in the Bengaluru-based firm.

AngelList now commands 3.86% stake in Newton School while Redbrook, Kumar and Mathrubootham own 0.50% stake each. Other individuals have less than 1% holding in Newton School. Post allotment, the collective stake of the company’s co-founders Nishant Chandra and Siddhartha Maheshwari has been diluted to 44.7% from 60.85%.

Newton School is one of the several players in India inspired by the US-based Lambada School. InterviewBit is the leader in the space that has seen over 50,000 applications for its coding bootcamp platform called Scaler Academy. A year ago, the company raised $20 million from Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital at a valuation of over $100 million.

Another player, Masai School, had mopped up a $2.5 million round led by Unitus, besides AngelList and India Quotient. These companies work on an income sharing model without any upfront investment. Users will start paying to these platforms once they secure a job based on imparted skills. Unlike InterviewBit and Masai, which have courses ranging from 6-12 months, Newton School allows applicants to learn at their own pace.