Online learning platform Unacademy, has raised $11.5 million (Rs 73 crore) in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital India and SAIF Partners.
The funding round also saw existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures, and some angels participating.
Founded by ex-founders of Flatchat Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta, Unacademy was started as an educational YouTube channel after they sold Flatchat to Commonfloor.
The startup plans on using the funds to enhance its product and technology. It will also expand to other categories such as personality development, new languages and job interviews. It will also invest the capital to produce its own content, the startup said in a statement.
“With the backing of Sequoia and SAIF, we are poised to gain momentum and create the first global education technology product out of India,” VCCircle quotes Gaurav Munjal, chief executive and co-founder of Unacademy as saying.
Run by Sorting Hat Technologies, the platform claims to have over 50,000 lessons online and over a million registered users.
“Unacademy democratises access to personalised learning by connecting educators and students directly on its platform,” Alok Goel, managing director of SAIF Partners, said.
Unacademy earlier raised funds in January. It raised $4.5 million (Rs 30 crore) in Series A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners and existing investor Blume Ventures.
Prior to that, the startup raised $1 million (Rs 6.7 crore) led by Blume Ventures and from a clutch of investors including Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in August 2016,
Blume also led the company’s $500,000 (Rs 3.3 crore then) angel round in May 2016, as per the VCCircle report.
The online education industry in India has been growing at a rapid phase and has seen several players entering this industry. Byju’s is one of the largest players in this sector. In fact, as per a joint report by search giant Google and consultancy firm KPMG, India’s online education industry will grow to $1.96 billion by 2021.
Unacademy’s rival Byju’s, raised an undisclosed amount from Chinese investor Tencent Holdings in July.
According to the VCCircle report, another player in the EdTech space, Cerebroz, raised Rs 4.7 crore in seed funding from Dubai-based high-net worth individuals last month. In the same month, Leverage EdTech also raised seed funding from a clutch of investors.