Edtech firm Eruditus raises $650 million at valuation of $3.2 billion, enters unicorn club

Executive education firm Eruditus on August 12 said it has raised $650 million, led by Accel and SoftBank, quadrupling its valuation to $3.2 billion, as the online learning space continues to see huge interest from investors.

With this, Eruditus will also turn unicorn, a term used to refer to private firms that have a valuation of over a billion dollars.

Also Read: Why Byju's is betting big on the upskilling space

While this was a rarefied club earlier, Eruditus will become the 23rd startup from India to become a unicorn this year, amid a huge funding interest in the Indian startup ecosystem. This will also make it the third Edtech unicorn from Sequoia's India portfolio- after Byjus and Unacademy, which also raised funding recently.

Moneycontrol was the first to report on Eruditus' funding plans on May 28, 2021.

Accel and Softbank Vision Fund 2 join Eruditus’ existing backers, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia India, Bertelsmann, Prosus, and Leeds Illuminate.

The company said it will use proceeds from the round to develop new courses in conjunction with university partners, create new products and industry verticals, expand the company’s business serving governments and enterprises, double down on new geographical markets, and fund
acquisitions.

“We have known Ashwin and the team at Eruditus for a number of years and have always been impressed by their approach and execution. We believe that the platform and deep partnerships with the world’s best universities puts Eruditus and its partner universities at the forefront of this
revolution in higher education. Their products are helping bring the best quality education to students around the world at affordable prices,” said Anand Daniel, Partner at Accel.

“With this fundraise, we’re excited to scale our unique business model, continue to deliver strong learning outcomes, and grow our global impact at a rapid rate",  said Ashwin Damera, co-founder and CEO.

Founded by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu in 2010, Eruditus started out with offline classes with faculty from Europe’s INSEAD and the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) teaching a 10 day-classroom program in a 5-star hotel for 10-15 people.

From 2015 onwards, it started an online teaching model and raised venture capital from investors such as Bertelsmann and Sequoia Capital India. It was last valued at $800 million in October 2020 when it raised $113 million led by Prosus Ventures (Naspers), the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and others.

For FY21, Eruditus recorded a revenue of $185 million, compared to $100 million in FY20, CEO Damera told Moneycontrol last week when it announced the iD Tech acquisition. It expects to more than double its revenue for FY22, with iD Tech also expected to have $100 million in revenue by the end of 2022.

“With the rapid rate of technological disruption, continuous upskilling is necessary in today’s job market,” said Sumer Juneja, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “The company’s partnerships with elite universities, and use of technology and data to create and deliver high quality courses positions Eruditus to lead in this space.”