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The other test preparation companies who have raised private equity are Career Launcher and Mahesh Tutorials.
Matrix Partners India, a Mumbai based venture capital firm, has invested Rs 100 crore in FIITJEE Ltd, a provider of training for IIT-JEE, AIEEE and other engineering entrance exams. This is the first time FIITJEE raising institutional money although the company has been in the fund raising market for the last three years.
The other test preparation companies who have raised private equity are Career Launcher (from Intel Capital in first round and under $10 million from Gaja Capital Partners in series B) and Mahesh Tutorials (about $12 million from Helix Investments).
FIITJEE is a leader in IIT entrance coaching. According to sources, the company has revenues in the range of Rs 150 crore.
The company was founded in 1992 by Dinesh Kumar Goel, an IIT Delhi graduate. A company statement claims that 25,000 of its students have been selected to various IITs since its inception.
"The quality of the entrepreneur and the size and the growth of the opportunity attracted us the most to make the investments in FIITJEE,” Rishi Navani, MD & Founder, Matrix Partners told VCCircle. Rishi Navani, Co–founder & Managing Director of Matrix India, will join the board of FIITJEE Ltd.
The company will employ the equity infusion to establish a pan India presence, added Navani. It's likely FIITJEE will move into the formal education space such as schools and colleges, the same way Career Launcher has scaled in the recent past.
For Matrix, this will be the second investment in the education sector which had earlier invested $7 million in Tree House, a pre-school educator. Navani said that education forms the core focus of their investing theme and will be looking at making more investments in this sector.
Matrix Partners India has around $450 million under management. It invests upto $50 million in companies, making venture and growth capital investments. Some of the portfolio companies of Matrix Partners India is Brand Marketing India , Itzcash Card, Seventymm, Yo! China and Tree School.
Well, I am an insider, don't know much about the financial jargon being discussed here, but if you mean by scaling "Growth", I wish to tell you that I joined FIITJEE in the year 2005 and FIITJEE has more than doubled its number of centres as well as teaching staff since then. In 1992 it started with 5000 Rupees and Now you can see the growth speaking for itself. As for "lagan" of the teachers, while there is always a gaussian distribution, I personally know a number of faculty who teach with a great commitment. FIITJEE is heavily in to recruiting IIT B.Techs and when an IIT B.Tech. decides something for a career , most likely there will be a "lagan" out there.
One may tweak as much as one want with the existing IIT JEE system of exams, the need for coaching will always be there (History is a proof think about all the tweaking with IIT JEE in past 3-4 years, and show me where has the coaching business declined)