Edtech Startup Toppr's Raised 35 Million Dollars

Top technologies Private Limited is an education technology (edtech) start-up, which has accumulated around $35 million in a series C round. This round was conducted by education focused investor Kaizen Private Equity. Kaizen Private Equity is a venture debt firm of Alteria Capital and Brand Capital which is the investment arm of media house Times Group. The edtech has developed an app that provides educational content for students from Class 5 up to class 12.

The content includes test series, question banks, and also chatting sessions for doubt resolving etc. The app also provides programmes for the preparation of various entrance exams in the field of engineering, medicine, law and chartered accountancy. In the series C round, participation was also seen from Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Ventures and SAIF Partners. Out of the 35 million dollars raised, approximately 40% shall be used for the purposes of advertising and bran building. On the other hand 60% of the fund would be used for product development, increasing engagement and investing in technology. Education technology space in India has lately been captured by Byju's technologies. After raising 540 million dollars, at a valuation of 3.6 billion dollars in a funding round led by South African internet giant Naspers, the founder of Byju's- Byju Raveendran has become a billionaire overnight. The various investors of Byju's are as follows: Tencent, the Chan Zukerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and private equity giant General Atlantic. Despite Byju's being a bigger brand, Toppr's Hayath has claimed that students spend almost 100 minutes a day for using the Toppr app. This is almost three times more than the time students spend in learning through the Byju's app. The number users who make use and learn from the Toppr's app is currently around 6 million. The company is hopeful that this figure will cross 30 million by the year 2020. The main aim of the Toppr's app is to engage more and more students with the Toppr's app and reduce their inclination towards the traditional tuition classes. Toppr's edtech aims to make the entire platform digitalised. The startup has raised 2.3 million dollars from Alteria Capital. Before that it raised almost 7 million dollars in October last years. The toppr's app is already making efforts to raise 80-100 dollar million for its next round from its new and existing investors. Sandeep Aneja, managing partner at Kaizen stated that he is extremely happy and impressed with the performance of Toppr's app. He stated that the app supports personalised learning. Upon tracking the performance of Edtech it has been found that they have been spending low and have been investing in an artificial intelligence driven algorithm. Also there are speculations that Kaizen would increase its stake in the next round of funding. About 40% of the users of the Toppr's app are from Tier 1 cities with the rest from smaller towns. With the expansion of the company, this can undergo change as Toppr's doesn’t have any precise geographical focus and in the times to come, it is expecting growth from smaller segments.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.livemint.com/Companies/vVH4cS2x5Zj19wVAYmtRtN/Edtech-startup-Toppr-raises-35-million-in-fresh-funding.html?facet=amp