Online tutorial platform Lido Learning has secured an additional $7.5 million (Rs 56 crore) in its extended Series B round of funding led by BAce Capital, a venture capital firm backed by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial.
Existing investors in the company also participated in the round, Lido said in a statement.
Last week, the firm had secured $3 million in the same round, taking the total to $10.5 million. Picus Capital, an early-stage investment firm co-founded by Rocket Internet founder Alex Samwer, had led that round.
With the new infusion, Lido primarily aims to build a presence in Tier II and Tier III towns and expand into more curriculum-focused subjects.
“With high-speed internet penetration, the tech infrastructure is ready; and as more students and parents experiment with online learning in the current pandemic, the customer mindset is ready,” Sahil Sheth, founder and CEO at Lido, said.
Lido is BAce Capital’s first ed-tech investment in India. The investment firm prioritizes investing in early-stage companies in emerging economies, focusing on India and Southeast Asia.
Benny Chen, managing partner at BAce Capital, said the firm is committed to supporting Lido to deliver the best quality tutoring services to Indian families.
BAce, launched last year, counts Paytm, Zomato, BigBasket, Rapido, and Healofy among its domestic portfolio firms.
Lido, owned by Quality Tutorials Pvt. Ltd, was founded in April 2019. It is a platform that sets up live tuition online for students between classes five and nine. It offers features such as interactive sessions, quizzes and games.
So far, it has managed to build a rapidly growing customer base across all major cities while offering Maths and Science tutorials for Classes 5-9 in ICSE and CBSE syllabus.
The company had secured $3 million in its Series A financing in November last year from Ronnie Screwvala, founder of Unilazer Ventures; and Ananth Narayanan, chief executive at e-pharmacy Medlife; among other affluent individual investors.
Deals in the ed-tech segment
The larger ed-tech segment in India has been the object of investor attention over the last few years. The most heavily funded startup is Byju's, which is part of the unicorn club of startups to be valued at $1 billion.
Last week, venture capital firms Matrix Partners and SAIF Partners have invested $4 million (Rs 30 crore) in ed-tech platform Camp K12.
Last month, GGV Capital, a venture capital firm with headquarters in the US, participated in the extended Series C round of interactive online tutoring platform Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
In January, Gurugram-based DoubtNut raised $15 million in its Series A round of funding led by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings. Sequoia's Surge was an early investor in DoubtNut.
The same month, growth-stage investor Iron Pillar led a Rs 60-crore (around $8.3 million) Series B round in Testbook, which operates a platform focused on government examination preparations.
In January, DSG Consumer Partners and Blume Ventures co-led an investment in Leverage EdTech Pvt. Ltd, which operates university admissions-focussed startup Leverage Edu.
