India | 30th July 2020: Toppr, India’s leading after-school AI based learning app for K12 students has raised INR 350 Cr in Series D funding led by Foundation Holdings. Other long-time partners including Kaizen Private Equity have also participated in this latest funding round. Toppr has now raised a cumulative INR 700 Cr and will use these funds to fuel its adaptive AI learning platform with over 1.3 crore registered students and to launch new platforms for Coding and Schools. This investment will further help to develop the AI based Toppr School Operating System (OS) – a ground-breaking platform for schools to run digitally unifying in-school and after-school learning to create a standardized and personalized experience.
Zishaan Hayath, Founder and CEO, Toppr said, “Toppr has been at the forefront of delivering adaptive learning to our students – and now also to the teachers – to ultimately enable a positive future for schools. We are committed to our mission to make learning personalised. The additional funding is a tremendous vote of confidence for this mission. With this investment, we now have the capability and reach to truly revolutionize the K-12 education experience and ensure that no learner is left behind. We are also excited about the launch of the School OS and believe this will be a ground-breaking initiative empowering teachers and schools across the industry. We’re delighted to have a passionate group of investors like Foundation Holdings with deep expertise in the education space to join us as we continue on our mission. Foundation Holdings is an important strategic partner for Toppr, and this investment is a testament to the strength of Foundation Holdings’ industry focus and their unique IPO experience on regional and global indices.”
Speaking about the investment, Aakash Sachdev, Managing Director of Foundation Holdings, said “We are thrilled to partner with Toppr. Our ambition is to implement an industry leading model for AI-enabled, blended education delivery by empowering educational institutions and teachers to create a platform of change and impact. Toppr’s market leading, proprietary machine learning technology is uniquely positioned to provide an integrated, curated, personalized pedagogy platform, mapped to 22 curriculums, designed to take schools to the future. Toppr has emerged as the highest traffic destination for K-12 learning and hosts over 1 million sessions every day. Toppr’s community of 50,000+ educators from across the country has contributed to over 35 lakh learning pieces, including questions, solutions, concepts, games and videos for the students. Our investment in Toppr also reflects our commitment to empowering great teachers via the new School OS. The new School OS already has 55,000+ learners on it.” Aakash Sachdev will join the board of Toppr.
Abhishek Sharma, Chief Executive Officer at Foundation Holdings said, “UNESCO states that 1.1 billion students had their schools partially or fully closed by April 2020 due to Covid-19. Education institutions were often scrambling to offer quality e-learning tools. We believe that omni-channel, blended learning is the future and that we are set to sail into the golden age of education and education technology. Toppr’s industry leading adaptive education platform will enable us to deliver impact, at unprecedented scale. Foundation Holdings’ vision is to create industry defining, sustainable healthcare and education companies, empower their founders and help their rockstar management teams realize their potential. Our objective is to work with Toppr to further cement its leading position, enhance its quality offerings and substantial growth prospects and amplify its brand enabling it to be IPO ready and find a home on the Nasdaq or an international stock exchange.”
In connection with the transaction, CLSA is serving as financial advisor whilst IndusLaw is serving as the legal counsel to Toppr. “Toppr’s relentless focus on creating the best product which feeds into high levels of engagement and renewal metrics and superior management team helped drive strong investor interest in the deal”, said Pankaj Agrawal, investment banking Head at CLSA.
Research from HolonIQ forecasts that over $87bn will be invested in EdTech over the next 10 years, almost triple the prior decade. According to the latest research by management consulting firm Ken Research, India’s online education market is growing at 20%+ p.a. and is expected to be sized at USD 2 bn by 2021.
