Sunstone Education Tech Pvt Ltd, which operates higher education-focussed Sunstone Eduversity, has raised Rs 24 crore (3.25 million) in a Series A funding round.
This infusion has been led by India-focussed venture firm Saama Capital, Gurugram-based Sunstone Eduversity said in a statement.
Other participants in this round include Helion Advisors managing director Ashish Gupta and PeopleStrong co-founder Pankaj Bansal.
Existing investors including Prime Venture Partners, Purvi Capital and GlobalLogic co-founder Rajul Garg also took part. Incidentally, Gupta joined homegrown Prime Venture as a partner emeritus last month.
Sunstone was founded in 2015 by Ashish Munjal and Piyush Nangru, both alumni of the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
The edtech firm says it works closely with corporates to develop industry-ready specialisations in segments such as BFSI, logistics, analytics, sales management, and digital marketing. It operates on a pay-after-placement model.
It will use the capital it has raised to enhance its technological infrastructure, as well as for talent acquisition, curriculum development, and growing its network of associated colleges.
The company currently has eight partner institutions in six cities and is aiming to grow this to 20 partners in 15 locations by July next year.
“With its technology-focused, data-centric approach and alignment with students, we believe Sunstone is well placed to bring about a shift in the present higher education system by equipping the students with the latest tools that would make them ready for real-world job opportunities,” Saama Capital partner Kiranbir Nag said.
Sunstone says students of its courses and programmes have been recruited by companies including Axis Bank, HDFC, Amazon, TCS, Byju’s, and Reliance Retail.
In November last year, the startup raised Rs 11.3 crore (around $1.56 million) in a funding round led by Prime Venture, with participation from LetsVenture, PS1 Venture, and Garg.
The investment in the firm is at least the fourth ed-tech-related deal to have taken place within the past week. On Tuesday, Coursera backer Learn Capital made its first Indian bet by investing in StayQrious India Pvt. Ltd. The California-based investor committed to the startup via its dedicated seed fund, Learnstart.
On Monday, startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts said it had invested in 7Classes, a competitive exams-focussed platform.
Classplus, another Times Internet-backed startup, raised a little over Rs 75 crore in a new funding round from investors including Alpha Wave Incubation, RTP Global and Blume Ventures.
Also this month, VCCircle reported that Times Internet Ltd, the digital media arm of Times Group, invested more money into an existing portfolio company in the edtech space.
