iNurture Education Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a provider of formal higher education programmes in India, said it has raised Rs 10 crore ($1.34 million) in debt funding from existing investor BlackSoil Capital Pvt. Ltd.
The company will use the funds to boost its digital higher education platform and meet its working capital needs, said iNurture in a statement. BlackSoil had previously invested in the firm in April 2017.
Earlier in June, Bengaluru-based iNurture had raised $4 million (Rs 30 crore) from Kimera Ltd, a Dubai-based family office. The company had also said it closed 2019-20 with revenue of about Rs 150 crore and that it had turned profitable in the same financial year.
Founded by Ashwin Ajila in 2007, iNurture offers industry-related courses in association with universities and colleges across India. It has more than 10,000 students in its full-time undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and is currently present in more than 35 campuses across the country.
The company’s other investors include Bertelsmann India Investments, Ascent Capital and GVFL Ltd (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd).
In January 2018, the startup had raised Rs 28 crore in Series C round of funding led by venture capital firm Ventureast.
Deals in edtech
The larger edtech segment in India has been the object of investor attention over the last few years and especially since the lockdown was imposed in late March to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Just last week, Vedantu Innovation Pvt. Ltd raised $100 million in a Series D funding round.
Earlier this month, Lightbox Ventures led a $7.2 million (around Rs 53 crore) pre-Series B funding round in Flinto.
In June, the edtech arm of Sai Estate Consultants Chembur Pvt. Ltd raised funding from Bollywood actor-producer and entrepreneur Suniel Shetty.
Also last month, Inflection Point Ventures invested $150,000 in Edvizo Media Pvt. Ltd.
There have been acquisitions in the space too. Unacademy, which is backed by the likes of Facebook Inc., struck its third reported acquisition of the year last week by picking up a majority stake in Mastree.
Other companies it has acquired are medical education platform PrepLadder and online exam preparation startup Kreatryx.
The most heavily-funded startup in the space is Byju's, which is part of the unicorn club of startups to be valued at $1 billion or more.
