Toppr raises Rs 350 crore Series D funding from Foundation Holdings

Online education startup Toppr said on July 29 that it had raised Rs 350 crore in a Series D funding round led by Foundation Holdings, a Dubai-based investor, continuing the funding trend of Ed-tech firms during the pandemic.

Education-focused private equity fund Kaizen, an existing investor in Toppr, also participated in this round.

Online learning firms, including Byju's, Vedantu and Unacademy have cumulatively raised over $700 million in capital this year. These companies have benefited hugely from the coronavirus lockdown, which has led students to use online learning tools more than ever.

Standardising the learning experience

Toppr, which provides classes for K12 — students from kindergarten to Class 12 — also recently launched coding classes. The startup has over 1.3 crore students registered on its platform and will use the funds to develop the Toppr School Operating System, for schools to provide a standardised in-school and after-school learning experience.

Zishaan Hayath, Founder and CEO, Toppr, said: “Toppr has been at the forefront of delivering adaptive learning to our students — and now also to teachers — to ultimately enable a positive future for schools. We are committed to our mission to make learning personalised. The additional funding is a tremendous vote of confidence for this mission. With this investment, we now have the capability and reach to truly revolutionise the K-12 education experience and ensure that no learner is left behind.

CLSA was the banker for the deal.

In a statement, Aakash Sachdev, Managing Director of Foundation Holdings, said: “Our ambition is to implement an industry leading model for AI-enabled, blended education delivery by empowering educational institutions and teachers to create a platform of change and impact. Toppr’s market leading, proprietary machine learning technology is uniquely positioned to provide an integrated, curated, personalised pedagogy platform, mapped to 22 curriculums, designed to take schools to the future.”