Coatue leads $100 million round in Vedantu, valuation jumps to $600 million

Live tutoring startup Vedantu said on July 16 it has raised $100 million in a funding round led by US-based hedge fund Coatue, doubling its valuation in just a couple of months to $600 million.

Moneycontrol first reported about the impending deal on June 30.

Founded by Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash and Saurabh Saxena in 2011, Vedantu currently provides live coaching classes for K12 students, including for entrance exams such as IIT JEE Main and Advanced for engineering and NEET for medical colleges.

It also provides classes for CBSE and ICSE, as well as various state boards, along with sample question papers, revision notes, mock tests and previous year’s papers.

The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted online education as students have been unable to step outside.

Vedantu said in a statement that it has grown 220 percent during the lockdown with over two million students attending live classes and teachers delivering over eight million hours of live classes.

Rahul Kishore, Managing Director at Coatue, will join Vedantu’s board of directors.

Vedantu has raised over $200 million in funding, most of it in the last 12 months, from investors such as Tiger Global Management, Westbridge Capital, Accel and GGV Capital. Its CEO Vamsi Krishna said, “During the lockdown everyone is talking about live classes and it is the best time for us to drive adoption and strengthen our brand. On top of adding new categories, we will use the funds to invest in content and technology to create the world’s best live teaching-learning experience.”