Edtech startup Guvi bags investment from HCL’s promoter

Update: HCL on Thursday announced that it has acquired a majority stake in edtech platform GUVI

Original story follows:

Guvi, an edtech platform that helps students learn coding in their native language, has raised Rs 15 crore or $1.9 million from Vama Sundari Investments.

Vama Sundari Investments is a promoter of India’s third largest IT services company HCL Technologies, which recently rebranded itself as HCLTech.

The fresh funds has flown into the company after a gap of two and a half years. The Chennai-based startup scooped up Rs 6 crore in its pre-series A round from Education Catalyst Fund, an education-focused venture capital fund managed by CBA Capital. 

The board at Guvi has passed a special resolution to issue 1,878 equity shares at an issue price of Rs 79,906 per share to raise Rs 15 crore or $1.9 million from Vama Sundari Investments, its regulatory filing with the registrar of companies shows.

The fresh proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and to meet capital expenditure, Guvi said in the filing. As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the company has been valued at around Rs 134 crore ($17 million) post allotment. The company also raised funds from US-based investor Gray Matters Capital in April 2019.

Founded by  SP Balamurugan, Arun Prakash, and Sri Devi in 2014, the IIT Madras and CIIE (IIM Ahmedabad) incubated company offers technical courses such as Web Development, AI module, SQL, and various other courses created by industry experts in vernacular languages.

Funding in the edtech segment declined from $5.82 billion in 2021 to $2 billion in 2022 till August 15, according to our data tracking platform Fintrackr. After a steep downfall, edtech companies have seen a revival in terms of fundraising in the past few weeks. A couple of startups such as Sunstone and Bhanzu raised $35 million and $15 million rounds respectively. Gurugram-based Adda247 is also in the last leg to close up to $40 million in a new round which was exclusively reported by Entrackr on Sep 21.