New Delhi-based edtech startup Classplus said Monday it has raised USD 9 million in its Series A funding round led by early stage venture firm RTP Global with participation from existing investors including Blume Ventures, Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Spiral Ventures, and Strive.
Classplus said the recent funding would be used to improve its technology capabilities as well as to expand product offerings. The company will increase its engineering and business team sizes and hire people in leadership roles.
Launched in 2018 by Mukul Rustagi and Bhaswat Agarwal, Classplus enables coaching institutes to take their brick-and-mortar setups online. The company claims that there are over 70 million students in India who enroll themselves with coaching classes every year. Classplus aims to digitize this massive but highly fragmented market, by helping tutors run all their communication with students, including practice tests, class schedules, and tuition fees on its mobile app that doubles up as their online content repository. Its app acts like a one-stop solution for tutors to keep a track of their classes, student assessments, and share study material with students.
The platform is also working with content publishers to establish easier access to online assessments for the ecosystem.
“According to the Global Teacher Status Index by the Varkey Foundation in 2018, India was among the top 10 in the world in respecting teachers, though was in the last 10 in paying them. Classplus is liquidating this imbalance by empowering tutors with full-stack mobile solutions, while maintaining and further improving the high reputation of tutors,” said Kirill Kozhevnikov, partner at RTP Global.
The company claimed its platform is used by over 3,500 coaching centers across 70-plus cities and towns in India, majority of which are tier 2 and 3 cities.
Ever since India has gone under a nationwide lockdown since March 23, schools, colleges, as well as coaching centers have begun partnering with tech-enabled education startups to enable them take classes on a virtual platform. Investors have taken cognizance of the increase in demand. According to industry tracker Tracxn, VC investment in edtech space has gained pace in 2020. Online tutoring startups in India have attracted USD 686.32 million in 21 rounds of investment in the first quarter of this year.
Led by Russian entrepreneur and investor Leonid Boguslavsky, RTP Global recently announced a USD 650 million fund to invest in early stage startups. This is RTP Global’s third investment in Indian startups this year.