By Haripriya Suresh
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian educational technology company Eruditus has raised $150 million in a new funding round led by private equity firm TPG, at a time when the funding environment for edtech companies has been subdued.
Eruditus’ Series F round, which also saw the participation of existing backers Softbank, Leeds Illuminate, Accel, CPP Investments and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, was raised at a valuation of $3 billion.
Co-founder and CEO Ashwin Damera told Reuters the focus will be on building AI products for teaching experiences, expanding focus to sell courses to enterprises and to double down on the Indian market, especially as Eruditus considers going public in India in the future.
“Today, India for us is about 28% of our overall business, and over the next five years, I would love to see India be at least 50% of what we do,” Damera said.
However, the Indian edtech sector is in a tough spot, with companies having raised only $419 million this year, a far cry from the $5.37 billion raised in 2021, according to information provider Tracxn. Edtech firm Physics Wallah raised $210 million last month.
Post fundraise, Eruditus will start the process of shifting its domicile to India from Singapore, Damera said.
Eruditus is one of several startups looking to change its legal address to India due to better public listing prospects.
Companies in the country have raised over $9 billion through IPOs this year, higher than the $7.42 billion raised in 2023, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Damera, however, did not offer a timeline for a listing.
“We have to ask ourselves what’s the right time for us as a company (for an IPO), we just have a new investor. We’ll have a discussion, we’re not dying to go public right away. We still have a lot of things to build and do,” he said.
(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh; Editing by Shreya Biswas)