Online education start-up Unacademy on Monday said it has raised $21 million in a series C funding round from Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and other existing investors at a valuation of more than $100 million.
Blume Ventures also participated in this round.
Some $2-3 million has come in the form of secondary investment in which some angel investors exited the company, Unacademy co-founder and chief executive officer Gaurav Munjal said in a telephonic conversation.
Unacademy (Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt. Ltd) plans to utilize the capital to get 10,000 educators on board monthly (from the present 3,000), grow its team and invest heavily in technology.
The company also aims to use the funds raised to strengthen its brand.
The new investment comes after the education technology start-up raised $11.5 million from Sequoia Capital and SAIF Partners in September last year.
The platform, which allows educators to create multimedia content for free viewing by users, has raised $38.6 million cumulatively till date.
“Sequoia India is thrilled to lead the new round in Unacademy, which is already making a big impact in India’s online learning space,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore.
Bengaluru-based Unacademy is one of the fastest-growing education technology start-ups in the country.
The company saw 40 million views for its courses last month, along with 200,000 daily active users, Unacademy said.
The company claims to have grown six times in terms of monthly revenue since October last year, which it attributed to the paid course, ‘Plus’ on its platform. The ‘Plus’ courses allow users to engage in live video classes, private discussion forums along with personal interactions.
Unacademy is focusing primarily on four categories of competitive examinations—IIT JEE, NEET, GATE and banking examinations.
“Since we launched the paid Plus courses, we plan to improve the live-stream technology there. And also building the brand,” said Munjal, who added that the company will introduce a marketing campaign that will include television ads in the next few months.
Mint had reported in February that the education content company was in talks to raise up to $35 million from new and existing investors, and was planning to expand its international footprint.
The company will use the fresh funds to expand its presence in Indonesia, where it has more than 30 tutors, Munjal added.
However, it has halted its pilot project in Brazil.
Unacademy, which was launched as a YouTube channel in 2010 by Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta, offers tutors from various domains an opportunity to create video courses that are published on the Unacademy app and website.
Munjal and Singh previously founded roommate discovery start-up Flatchat, which was eventually sold to CommonFloor in 2014.
Source: Mint