Kaizen Management Advisors Pvt Ltd, a private equity firm that focuses on the education sector, has invested in Hyderabad-based professional skills training firm INSOFE Education Pvt. Ltd, a media report said on Monday.
INSOFE, which runs International School of Engineering, plans to use the funds to expand its research activity, hire faculty members and grow its operations both in the country and overseas, The Mint newspaper reported, citing founder Dakshinamurthy V. Kolluru.
This is Kaizen’s first bet from its second fund, the report said, without specifying the amount the PE firm invested in the company that specialises in data sciences and analytics training.
Email queries to Kaizen PE and INSOFE didn't elicit any response till the time of filing this article.
According to the report, Kaizen also made the first close of its second fund at $42 million (Rs 285 crore). Five investors came on board as limited partners for the fund, it said.
Sandeep Aneja, managing partner at Kaizen PE, had earlier told VCCircle that the fund had a target corpus of $150 million, including a greenshoe option of $25 million. It had aimed to mark the first close at nearly $50 million.
The PE firm, which has backed 10 companies from its debut fund, is likely to invest in a little over a dozen firms from the new fund. The average ticket size for each transaction would be in $8-9 million range as against $5-7 million that it invested from the first fund, as per VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
The company is eyeing investment mainly in four categories—personalised learning space, pre-school, education finance and micro learning.
The new fund has also prioritised its focus to invest in Southeast Asia. The PE firm plans to initially invest in the Philippines and Sri Lanka from the new fund and then add countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.
VCCircle recently reported that Kaizen was in advanced discussions with Campus Students Communities Pvt. Ltd, a Bengaluru-based company that provides student housing under the Campusville brand, to help raise its Series B round of funding.
The PE firm is also looking to exit pre-school chain Your Kids R Our Kids India Education Pvt. Ltd through a “strategic dealâ€.
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