Eruditus raises $113 million from Chan Zuckerberg fund, others; valuation doubles

Online learning startup Eruditus has raised $113 million in a funding round led by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Prosus Ventures ( Naspers), and Leeds Illuminate Global Fund, doubling its valuation to $800 million in two years.

Moneycontrol wrote on August 24 that CZI, a non-profit headed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, was in talks to back Eruditus at $800-million valuation.

Its existing investor Sequoia Capital participated in the round as well. Notably, Sequoia, CZI and Naspers are all investors in Byju’s, India’s largest online learning startup.

Founded in 2010 by Chaitanya Kalipatnapu and Ashwin Damera, Eruditus offers management programmes and short courses remotely. Its subject areas include leadership and management, data science, digital transformation, banking and finance.

It has tie-ups with foreign universities, including Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School.
For FY20, Eruditus had revenue of $100 million. The coronavirus outbreak has seen the demand grow 30 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Online education is among the more profitable businesses among startups, as revenues are real, parents are willing to pay for quality education and costs are mainly hiring teachers and a technology platform. Unlike other sectors, discounts or cash burn is less common.

With students forced to learn from home, education technology startups have been in the middle of a funding frenzy. Byju’s, Vedantu, Unacademy and others have raised close to a billion dollars combined this year alone.