New Delhi MyClassroom, promoted by Sanjeev Agarwal, founder and managing director of Amplus-owned Petroleum National BHD (Petronas), and a few key investors are in talks with private equity firms for stake sale in the hyperlocal edtech firm to raise growth capital.
The edtech startup has tied up with local coaching institutes to boost its learning infrastructure in an offline environment. The other investors are Gautam Bhandari, Managing Partner of I-Squared Capital in myClassroom in his personal capacity; Karan Bhagat, CEO of IIFL Wealth; Former Senior MD of Blackstone Matthew Syriac; and Nitin Malhan, former MD of Warburg Pincus. A total of $12.5 million has been raised from these initial investors.
At a time when the edtech space is undergoing churning, myClassroom is in the business of integrating and standardizing complementary education and has 40 centers across the country. Some of the prominent names in the online delivery model are Byju’s, Vedantu and Topper; While in the offline space are FIITJEE and Blackstone Group-backed Aakash Educational Services Ltd, which was recently acquired by Byju’s.
Mint is reporting tensions in the edtech sector as offline classes resume with the pandemic receding and competition increasing.
Agarwal established Emplus Energy Solutions Pvt Ltd. Ltd., one of India’s largest rooftop solar power producers in 2010, was sold to Petronas for Rs 2,700 crore and entered the clean energy space globally as Malaysia’s state-run oil and gas company. New York-based I Squared Capital invested $150 million in Amplus in April 2015 to help it become India’s largest rooftop solar power producer before selling its stake.
“Along with my co-investors, we are proud to support the excellent founding management team at MyClassroom. Education remains an under-served market and as investors, we want the company to add value to every student. We should focus on this,” Agarwal said, refusing to name private equity investors, adding that discussions are on to raise the next round. of development capital.
With students going back to offline coaching, the model has gained traction with MyClassroom close to clocking in 100 crore revenue in FY 2013. myclassroom on its part is helping local coaching institutes to focus on smaller cities through better technology, smart class rooms and marketing. The plan is to add 75 new centers for FY 23-24 and reach 300 centers in 60 cities by FY 26.
Mohit Goel, Chief Operating Officer, MyClassroom, said, “Many of our partners were looking for capital and marketing support to expand their businesses in the post-COVID world and we are delighted that we have been able to help them grow “
Agarwal’s bet comes at a time when the $16 billion offline coaching space and the $12 billion test preparation market are extremely fragmented. Explaining the proposition of MyClassroom, he said that the ed-tech start-up co-brands local institutions with MyClassroom, digitizes and standardizes teaching.
“The aggregation of coaching institutes has led to an accelerated customer acquisition cost (CAC) due to the local level of credibility and student stickiness,” said Agarwal.