Metis Eduventures Pvt. Ltd, which runs vernacular test preparation platform Adda247, has secured $35 million (around Rs 280 crore) in a fresh fundraising round, led by private equity firm WestBridge Capital. The round also saw Google as a new investor.
The latest fund infusion catapulted Adda247’s valuation to $175 million (around Rs 1,400 crore), three people close to the development told VCCircle.
Existing investors Info Edge and Asha Impact also participated in the round.
On 21 September, Info Edge had announced an investment of around Rs 80 crore in Adda247. That investment is a part of this $35 million funding round in the edtech startup.
The Gurugram-based platform plans to deploy its fresh proceeds to ramp up its tech and product portfolio, expanding student counselling team and hiring for some key leadership roles. It is also looking to make acquisitions.
Adda247 was founded by Anil Nagar and Saurabh Bansal in 2016. Its offerings include live-video classes, on-demand video courses, mock tests, and books focused on government examinations. The startup offers content in over 12 vernacular languages, focussing on students from tier II and III cities. At present, it has 22 million monthly active users and a total of 2 million paid users till date.
“All our offerings focus on ‘building for bharat’ as 85% of our user base comes from tier II, III and IV cities. We want to help create a level playing field by providing all kinds of learning solutions to students from all backgrounds,” said Nagar.
“Anil and Saurabh have worked tirelessly to build a category leader in the govt exam preparation space which is a very large market. It is one of the rare profitable ed-tech companies in India and is also growing at a rapid pace,” said Sandeep Singhal of WestBridge Capital.
In November last year, Adda247 had raised $20 million as part of its Series B funding round led by WestBridge Capital.
The dearth of funding in 2022 follows two golden years for edtech startups. In 2021, investors pumped $4.7 billion into edtech platforms while 2020 saw startups raising about $2.2 billion.
In comparison, funding for edtech startups declined by 50% in the April to June quarter of 2022, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report released last month.
