Online tutorial platform Lido Learning has secured $3 million (Rs 22 crore) from new and existing investors, less than six months after it raised its Series A round.
The new investors who participated in this round included Picus Capital and Paytm president Madhur Deora, Lido said in a statement on Monday.
Picus is an early-stage investment firm co-founded by Rocket Internet founder Alex Samwer. Lido Learning is also Picus’ first investment in the ed-tech sector.
“Considering the current global pandemic, learning online has become the need of the hour. This is pulling the Indian market towards adopting online tutorials much faster than initially expected,” said Lido founder Sahil Sheth.
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.
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.
Toppr and Unacademy are among other ed-tech startups that have also raised significant funding.
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.
