Edtech startup NxtWave raises $33 Mn Series A led by GPC

Upskilling startup NxtWave has raised $33 million in its latest fundraising round led by private equity firm Greater Pacific Capital (GPC). Existing investor Orios Venture Partners also participated in the fresh round.

NxtWave plans to utilize the funds to invest in product & content, onboard more than 10,000 companies to hire its learners and fulfill skilled talent requirements of the industry, and undertake acquisitions in the next couple of years, the company said in a press release. The firm will also expand to multiple geographies within the country.

Previously, the Hyderabad-based firm raised $2.8 million pre-Series A funding led by Orios Venture Partners and Better Capital. 

Founded by Sashank Reddy Gujjula, Anupam Pedarla and Rahul Attuluri, NxtWave is building an online employability platform for new-age technology careers. According to the company, over 1,250 companies including Amazon, Google, Goldman Sachs and Jio, have hired thousands of NxtWave learners in the past couple of years.

The two and a half year old company managed to grow its scale at a scorching pace in the last two fiscal years. NxtWave’s scale shot up 4X to Rs 30.18 crore in FY22 as compared to Rs 7.14 crore in FY21. As per its annual financial statement with the RoC, its profit blew up 65X to Rs 2.6 crore in FY22 from nearly Rs 4 lakh in FY21.

In supkilling space, Nxtwave directly or indirectly competes with Simplilearn, upGrad, Scaler by InterviewBit, Newton School, and Masai School.

Funding wise, this is the largest deal in the edtech segment in the ongoing calendar year. Edtech was among the worst hit during the funding winter. For context, startups in the segment scooped up $5.8 billion in 2021 which fell to $2.3 billion in 2022, according to a report by Entrackr. The segment also slipped from second to fifth spot during the period in terms of fundraising.