Venture capital firms Matrix Partners and SAIF Partners have invested $4 million (Rs 30 crore) in ed-tech platform Camp K12, a global online school for K-12 segment.
Sandeep Bhagi, co-founder at Camp K12, said the firm is aggressively hiring teachers and operators who are excited about building a global online school of the future.
Gurugram-based Camp K12 was founded by Bhagi and Anshul Bhagi. Anshul, a Harvard Business School MBA graduate, has previously worked with organisations such as McKinsey, Google and Microsoft. Sandeep, on the other hand, was the founding country manager for Apple where he spearheaded the tech giant's strategic push in India for four years.
The firm offers coding and other extra-curricular to kids spanning the age group of 5-18 via LIVE, interactive, gamified online sessions.
Camp K12 has chosen coding for kids as the first vertical, a category in which both the founders are said to have previously trained over 50,000 K-12 students and partnered with 100s of schools across India.
Separately, Mukul Arora, MD at SAIF Partners, said parents are increasingly feeling the need to equip their children with new-age skills beyond academics. For many of these skills, live online video and interactive mentor-led instruction are far more powerful than what is available for kids today.
Investors
Among the two, Matrix Partners has struck several deals in the ed-tech segment since beginning of this year. Some of those investments include the likes of AntWak, Toddle, Openhouse Technologies and Pesto.
The VC firm had exited Mumbai-based pre-school chain Tree House Education and Accessories Ltd after eight years in 2016 making about Rs 180 crore or close to three times the investment amount, according to VCCircle estimates.
Matrix has backed more than 60 companies including cab-hailing firm Ola, mobile payment services company Mswipe, digital healthcare firm Practo and social commerce platform Limeroad.
SAIF Partners has been active in India for more than a decade and has backed firms including the publicly listed MakeMyTrip Ltd and Just Dial Ltd, and One97 Communications Ltd-owned Paytm.
The multi-stage investor was involved in quite a few deals last year including fintech startup Finwego, pre-owned cars platform Spinny and social-travel commerce startup Airblack Technologies.
SAIF Partners had raised $350 million for a new fund in July 2017. It is the firm’s third India-focussed vehicle and its size is almost the same as its previous two India funds.
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.
Toppr and Unacademy are among other ed-tech startups that have also raised significant funding.
Last week, online tutorial platform Lido Learning raised another $3 million in funding in less than 6 months from a mix of fresh and existing investors.
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.
Also, in the same month, DSG Consumer Partners and Blume Ventures co-led an investment in Leverage EdTech Pvt. Ltd, which operates university admissions-focussed startup Leverage Edu.