Education technology platform Vedantu has raised Rs 96 crore (about $12.5 million) as part of its Series C1 round, led by Chinese venture capital firm Legend Capital, with participation from Omidyar’s Ohana Holdings LLC.
The investment follows a $42 million fund infusion led by Tiger Global Management in August last year, followed by a $24 million round from GGV Capital in February this year. Both investments were part of Vedantu’s Series C round.
Regulatory filings revealed that Vedantu issued 7,75,145 Series C1 Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares at an issue price of Rs 1,239.36 per share on March 26.
While Legend Capital pumped in close to Rs 74 crore, Omidyar pumped in Rs 22.1 crore.
The investment comes at a time when Vedantu, like rivals Byju’s and Unacademy, has doubled down on growing its user base by offering free access to its platform to students in the wake of the 21-day nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The live tutoring platform has also gone on an advertising blitz to capitalise on the lockdown, similar to how digital payment firms did during demonetisation in late 2016.
Vamsi Krishna, CEO of Vedantu, had told ET that the company was partnering with schools to allow teachers to conduct live classes remotely.
In February, when Vedantu raised $24 million, it had said it would utilise the capital to grow its services to cater to kindergarten to Grade 5 students, as opposed to its focus on grade 6-12 learners right now.
Krishna also said the company will utilise the funds to push its WAVE platform that allows teachers to track learners to provide individual attention to students even in a remote setting.
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