Space Tech Startup Digantara Raises $10 Mn in Series A Funding Led by Peak XV Partners

Indian Institute of Science (IISc) -incubated space technology company Digantara has raised $10 million in Series A funding round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia). Kalaari Capital also participated in this round, reported media outlets including Tech Crunch and Mint.

This is notably the first space-tech investment by the Sequoia and also the first official funding announcement since restructuring from Sequoia India.

Founded in December 2018 by Indian engineers Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Rawat and Tanveer Ahmed, Digantara has raised $12.5 million till date, including the seed round of $2.5 million from Kalaari Capital in July 2021.

Digantara will use the freshly raised funds to build its commercial space situational awareness satellites, as part of its infrastructure as well as to expand its team and set up a new office in Bengaluru.

Digantara, which specializes in space weather and space debris-tracking, is building its space data mapping service. 

Digantara has successfully launched its second satellite named Pushan-Alpha onboard SpaceX's Transporter 6 mission on January 3.

Bengaluru-based Digantara is a space situational awareness company that is developing an end-to-end infrastructure to address the difficulties of space operations and space traffic management through its pioneering Space - Mission Assurance Platform a.k.a. Space-MAP, which will serve as a one stop solution for all space operations with products offered through a data feedback loop using multi modal data sets. This platform will be as powerful and sophisticated as Google Maps, serving as a foundational layer for space operations and astrodynamics research.

Digantara is presently working with the Indian space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to source satellite data, among others.

In January, Digantara was recognised as Winner under “Space” category by Startup India for their efforts towards building sovereign SSA capability at National Startup Awards 2022.

ClimateTech Startup Climes Raises $1.2 Mn in Its 1st Round of Funding Led by Sequoia Capital India and Kalaari Capital

Climes Founders

Climes is addressing the gargantuan climate finance problem which has been a huge obstacle in the fight against climate change

Partnered with brands such as MakeMyTrip, zingbus and TEDx

Climes, a ClimateTech company, announces its first round of funding of USD 1.2 million. The company is building an engine that accelerates the flow of fresh capital towards climate solutions by making it convenient for brands and individuals to take meaningful climate action.

Founded by Anirudh Gupta (ex-Airbus) and Siddhanth Jayaram (ex-Kalaari Capital), Climes unlocks an untapped source of capital, amidst an urgent need to finance climate action. While total commitments for climate finance have steadily increased over the last decade, the actual ‘flow’ of capital to meet internationally agreed climate objectives significantly lags required levels. This is as per the 2021 edition of the Global Landscape of Climate Finance. It goes on to say that an increase of at least 590% in annual climate finance is required to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change. This is the problem that Climes takes head on.

The first round saw participation from Sequoia Capital India, Kalaari Capital, Nithin Kamath (Zerodha, Rainmatter), and Avaana Capital. Other notable participants in the round include Satyen Kothari (Cube Wealth) and Anshuman Bapna (Terra.do) from Stanford Angels, Keshav Reddy (Reddy Futures), and climate-tech founders Arjun Gupta (Smart Joules) & Akshay Singhal (Log9 Materials) among others.

On the announcement, Co-Founders, Anirudh & Siddhanth said “Finance is the single biggest lever to solve climate change. Fantastic projects and solutions for carbon mitigation exist all around us. However, the finance needed to scale these projects is simply not flowing fast enough. With this capital raise, Climes is i) building the necessary digital infrastructure to enable a big chunk of this money to flow transparently and ii) designing the right incentives for all market players to benefit. The delta of each rupee/dollar/euro that flows through Climes will have an outsized multiplier impact on global carbon mitigation.”

The Climes’ engine, at a macro-level, allows for a transparent flow of finance from where it is to where it needs to be. At a micro-level, it acts as the gateway for individuals and brands to take their first step towards climate action.

Climes’ mission is to reverse the effects of climate change by letting individuals take “climate action in a single click”. It is a first-of-its-kind climate start-up whose technology allows consumer-facing brands to go climate-positive in just a matter of hours. The tech-stack built by Climes integrates seamlessly into the checkout pages of everyday consumer brands.

With this, customers can neutralise emissions specific to their purchase or order. The emission calculations are based on accurate mathematical models, in line with global standards of carbon accounting. Next, they choose from a list of independently-certified (Verra, Gold Standard etc.) or rigorously verified climate solutions based in India. These solutions either remove atmospheric carbon by restoring green cover in degraded lands, or avoid additional emissions by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.

This individual-led climate action is enabled by consumer brands. Partnering with Climes is the quickest way for brands to become climate-positive and kickstart their sustainability agenda with minimal effort. Some of the brands associated with Climes so far include TEDx, MakeMyTrip, Wedding Brigade and Zingbus. There are at least a dozen more in the pipeline.

Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital said “The rising awareness of the need for carbon neutral lifestyle and climate costs require urgent new solutions. Entrepreneurs offering solutions with climate-sensitiveness can create key differentiating propositions. Sid and Ani have lofty goals to bring climate awareness and action. Climes’ solution makes it possible for brands to embark on that transition by allowing customers to carbon-neutralise every transaction”

Adding to this, Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO, Zerodha & Rainmatter said “The ideal solution towards climate change problems is to reduce consumption which may not be possible at all times. Making people aware of their carbon footprint and then making it available to offset maybe a good mid-way path. We are excited to be a part of their journey and learn ourselves along the way.”

The company intends to use the capital on two fronts. One, deploy more integrations with brands in fashion, food, travel, beauty & personal care, and enable a pathway for brands to become climate leaders within their categories. And two, expand their tech-stack to swiftly onboard high-quality climate solutions within India, as well as to measure and report impact transparently.

According to the founders of Climes, any climate plan should follow a simple formula, devoid of current complexities - ‘Cut what you can, neutralise what you can’t.’ In other words, reduce avoidable emissions through climate-friendly operations, and neutralise unavoidable emissions, through platforms like Climes.

Honasa Becomes the 1st Unicorn of 2022 As It Raises $52 Mn Led by Sequoia at 1.2 Bn Valuation

Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL), parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co. and the fastest growing personal care House of Brands, closes the latest USD 52 Million round led by Sequoia, accelerating the company’s leadership in D2C personal care segment.

The round witnessed participation by Sofina Ventures SA, the Belgium-based investment company, and Evolvence, a UAE based India focused fund. The round also gave employees an opportunity to monetize their vested ESOP.

The company plans to deploy the funds towards expanding their portfolio of personal care D2C brands venturing into new avenues with unique propositions. With the recent launch of Aqualogica, a hydration-based skin care brand, the company has forayed into a new segment catering to unique requirements of Indian skin and tropical weather. The newly acquired funds will be directed towards product innovation, distribution, and marketing of brands in Honasa’s stable. Along with launching new brands, Honasa will continue aggressively expanding distribution for existing brands -Mamaearth and The Derma Co. and explore strategic inorganic growth opportunities in beauty and personal care segment.

Commenting on this, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. said, “We have been on a constant quest to becoming a company that is the first choice of evolving Indian millennials in the beauty and personal care segment. Our flagship brand, Mamaearth has established itself as a leader in D2C personal care with a strong purpose of Goodness Inside. Looking at the scale of Mamaearth and success of The Derma Co., we are confident that we have the expertise to build brands with a millennial connect. We will be deploying the funds towards brand launches, expanding distribution, inorganic growth and expanding the current portfolio across borders. Sequoia, Sofina and Evolvence have unique strengths in US, Europe & GCC respectively which will help us grow internationally & learn from others in these markets."

Commenting on investment, Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder and CIO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. said, “Our company is built on the proposition of Honest, Natural and Safe and that has contributed to the exponential growth of Mamaearth as consumers buy into the philosophy of the brand while purchasing the product. Millennials personal care concerns are dynamic and with our Direct-to-Consumer approach we are updated on the changing consumer demands. With this thought, we have been able to build an extensive portfolio of products across baby care, skincare, haircare and color cosmetics under Mamaearth and a portfolio of 40+ products under The Derma Co. The launch of Aqualogica is an extension of our philosophy of millennial problem-solving products. With the launch of Aqualogica, we are the first ones to launch a brand on the Noble prize winning Aquaporins based approach to hydration and the brand is already showing great receptivity by the consumers. The recent round will empower us to fuel our innovation funnel and provide a wider assortment of problem-solving personal care products for millennials we closed will further provide impetus to our innovation funnel and help us serve our consumers with a wider assortment of products.”

Ishaan Mittal, MD, Sequoia India said, “As discovery and consumption of FMCG brands is getting more influenced by digital channels, it is providing a unique opportunity to founders to build brands of the future. Mamaearth has established itself as a clear market leader in this digital-first consumer goods space and team Sequoia is delighted to double-down on the partnership with Ghazal and Varun in this journey.”

Rohit Batra, Managing Partner, Evolvence Capital, said, "We have been very impressed with the remarkable growth that Honasa has witnessed and the deep connect and trust it has established with its customers. We believe the GCC market will be very receptive to the Honasa brands, especially Mamaearth and initial signs have been very encouraging as we scale in the region."

Yana Kachurina, Investment Manager, Sofina Ventures SA, said, “We have been privileged to witness the spectacular growth of the company over the last few months, which only reinforces our initial view that Honasa is led by exceptional entrepreneurs and boasts best-in-class brand building and innovation capabilities"

Honasa Consumer Pvt Limited (HCPL), is a digital-first consumer brands company creating the FMCG conglomerate of the future. A company built on the values of Honesty, Natural ingredients and Safe care, HCPL caters to the needs of millennial consumers through innovative products, evolved propositions, direct to consumer marketing, and e-commerce fulfillment. Currently catering to over 1000 cities in India with brands like Mamaearth, The Derma Co. & Aqualogica, HCPL is building an ecosystem that helps benefit the consumers and community at large. Backed by Sequoia, Sofina Ventures SA, Evolvence, Fireside Ventures, and Stellaris Venture Partners, HCPL has become a billion-dollar personal care House of Brands in just 5 years.

Full-stack Agritech Platform DeHaat Raises $12 Mn in Funding led by Sequoia India

Agritech platform DeHaat announced that it has raised a USD 12 million (INR 83 crore) Series A round led by Sequoia India, with participation from FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder also participated in this round.

Based in Gurgaon and Patna and founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM and NIT alumni, DeHaat is a technology-based platform offering full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agri inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.

With an aim to becoming a one-stop solution that meet the needs of Indian farmers while helping them increase their profitability, the platform integrates a digital marketplace with a rural network of last mile service delivery centers. DeHaat’s annual revenue has grown by 3.5x since March ’19.The company plans to scale up to 2,000 rural retail centres for last mile delivery as well as farm produce aggregation and 1 million farmers on the network by 2021. DeHaat will use some of the new funding to automate its supply chain and build the next layer of data analytics to drive further supply chain efficiency.

Shashank Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO of DeHaat said, “We are excited to partner with Sequoia India and FMO as we drive towards one million farmers on the DeHaat platform. Sequoia’s deep expertise in B2B platforms and technology products combined with FMO’s expertise in agricultural value chain financing will help DeHaat accelerate its growth while delivering massive impact for the farmers we work with.”

Currently serving over 210,000 farmers across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha, DeHaat provides farmers with access to over 3,000 agricultural inputs, combined with AI-based customised crop advisory content of pest & disease management for major crops delivered via mobile app and call centers. The platform also aggregates corn, wheat, rice, fruits, and vegetables from farmers on their network and directly supplies to over 200 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors.

“Indian agriculture is a $350B+ industry powered by close to 100M small and independent farmers. This industry is on the brink of a massive transformation with ease of regulation, famers getting organized and increasing smart phone penetration and DeHaat is leveraging these trends to build the next-gen product in agricultural supply chain”, said Abhishek Mohan, VP, Sequoia Capital India LLP. “The tipping point that led to Sequoia India’s decision to partner with them, was the field visit, where the farmers expressed how proud they were to be associated with a platform they felt truly worked in their favour. This impact and deep brand loyalty stems from the leadership team’s razor-sharp focus, deep empathy and fine execution”, he added.

Jaap Reinking, Director Private Equity at FMO, said “Increasing economic uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a grave concern to all. Especially in these challenging times it is important to continue our support for innovative businesses in emerging markets, and focus on accelerating sustainable development. That is why we are proud to announce our partnership with Green Agrevolution - DeHaat through the FMO Ventures Program. We look forward to supporting this Indian Agri Tech platform with our expertise in agricultural value chain financing and rural development programs.”

DeHaat earlier raised a USD 4 million (INR 29 crore) pre-Series A round in March 2019, led by Omnivore and AgFunder, which was topped up in May 2019 with an additional USD 3 million (INR 20 crore) of venture debt from Trifecta Capital. Dexter capital was the exclusive advisor of this funding round.

About DeHaat:

DeHaat is a technology based platform offering full stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agricultural inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce. For more information on DeHaat, please visit: http://agrevolution.in

About Sequoia India:

Sequoia India helps daring founders build legendary companies, from idea to IPO and beyond. Sequoia India operates in Southeast Asia and India where we actively partner with founders from a wide range of companies, across categories, including BYJUs, Carousell, Druva, GO- JEK, OYO Rooms, Tokopedia, Truecaller, Zilingo, Zomato and more. We spur founders to push the boundaries of what’s possible. In partnering with Sequoia, startups benefit from 47 years of tribal knowledge and lessons learned working with companies

like Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple, Dropbox, Google, JD.com, LinkedIn, Meituan and Stripe early on.

From the beginning, non-profits have been the backbone of our LP base, which means founders’ accomplishments make a meaningful difference. The majority of our profits – over $16 billion since 2000 alone – are returned to great causes, like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT. For more information on Sequoia's work in India and SE Asia, visit sequoiacap.com/india


About FMO

FMO is the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a 50-year proven track-record of empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life. FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 10.4 billion spanning over 83 countries, FMO is one

of the larger bilateral private sector developments banks globally. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl

About Omnivore:

Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. For further information on Omnivore, please visit: http://omnivore.vc

About AgFunder:

AgFunder is an online venture capital platform that invests in agrifoodtech startups globally. For further information on AgFunder, please visit: https://agfunder.com

InterviewBit Raises $20 Mn in Funding from Sequoia India, Tiger Global

Bengaluru-based InterviewBit on Tuesday said it has raised USD 20 million (over Rs 142 crore) in funding led by Sequoia India and Tiger Global among others.

InterviewBit, a Surge 01 (a Sequoia program) start-up, offers an advanced online computer science program for college graduates and young professional software engineers called Scaler Academy.

"The company will use these funds to scale up their enrolment and launch in new markets, while also investing in their curriculum and their live teaching product to enhance the student-teacher experience," a statement said.

InterviewBit co-founder Anshuman Singh said a lot of young engineers don't always have access and exposure to the relevant technical skills or recruitment processes of global companies.

"Our mission is to bridge that gap and help them grow in their careers. We are very pleased to be able to help young engineers expand their knowledge and coding skills and enable them to get top tier software engineering jobs at the best global tech companies," he added.

Founded in 2015 by Abhimanyu Saxena and Anshuman Singh, InterviewBit is an online platform that teaches skills needed for technology jobs, mentors students to crack recruitment processes and provides referrals to opportunities in the software industry globally.

It has more than a million registered software developers with over 3,00,000 monthly active users. Over 600 companies work with InterviewBit for their hiring requirements including Google, Uber, Amazon, Facebook, Flipkart, Myntra and Dunzo.

Softbank, Sequoia, Tiger Global Highest VC Newsmakers of 2019 -Wizikey Report

• Softbank investments in the topmost unicorns in India was the highlight of 2019


• Sequoia and Tiger Global were true angels of the early stage startups this year 


• Tencent and Accel also made their mark in the list

Venture Capital is an important cog of the startup ecosystem in India. Wizikey, Asia’s first PR and communication platform has collated interesting trends across industries using its AI and ML-based Technology and created a report on the top newsmakers of 2019 in the VC ecosystem. The report has been created after a thorough study of all the news published in the sector from 1st of January till date. 

The most common theme for all big VC players was either about their funding announcements or the exits they made. Overall, it was a good year with lots of investments taking place regardless of the economic slowdown.

The top 5 Newsmakers in the category were:

 

 Anshul Sushil, Co-Founder and CEO of Wizikey said, “Venture Capital firms have evolved in stature in the last few years. People just don’t look at them for just capital requirement but for guidance at each and every aspect of the business. Hence it becomes interesting to see what is perceived image of these firms in media."

SoftBank, the Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company is one of if not the biggest venture capitals operating today. With its fingers in almost all kinds of pies, the Japanese giant has been in the news on its own merit and for being mentioned alongside its star portfolio companies like Oyo Rooms, WeWork, Paytm and Ola. Being an industry leader in its field, the media follows SoftBank’s steps with keen interest, which means almost every investment or activity it carries out is covered extensively.

Sequoia, a leading California based venture capital firm had substantial visibility in 2019. In terms of investments, Sequoia had an active year which kept the venture firm in the news constantly throughout the year. Articles pertaining to the star investees of the firm like Oyo, Cred, Freshworks, and Druva ensured Sequoia had enough mentions throughout the year.

Additionally, a shift in the top leadership of the firm coupled with the launch of its Surge program ensured the firm was never out of the media’s spotlight.

Tiger Global is one of the biggest names in the investment community till date. The firm has a rich history of investing in some of the biggest unicorns and up and coming startups across the globe. Thus, it is no surprise that it is in the top 5 Newsmakers in the investment sphere. With investee companies like Ola Electric, CleverTap, and NoBroker, Tiger Global has had a healthy amount of visibility across 2019.

The Chinese mega-conglomerate, Tencent is probably most widely known for its games, PUBG being the most prominent of those lately. What people not keenly following the Venture

Capital space doesn’t know is that it also operates one of the world’s largest venture capitals. So much so that Tencent has invested in more Unicorns than even SoftBank. It is also a prominent player in the Indian investment space with portfolio companies like Ola and Udaan. While Tencent may not be as visible as SoftBank or Sequoia, it is still one of the biggest players and Newsmakers in the industry.

Accel, a US-based venture capital firm has had a very active year in terms of investments having participated in funding rounds for the likes of Acko, Blackbuck, Ninjacart to name a few. The firm works closely with early-stage startups and has had a considerable amount of visibility, enough to help the firm differentiate itself from the clutter and be included in the top five Newsmakers in the investment space. This was made possible through Accel’s frequent funding announcements across 2019.

About Wizikey:

Wizikey is a PR Software-as-a-Service that uses data and AI to simplify PR, making it transparent and measurable for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. It enables users with features like realtime media intelligence, helping delivering stories to the right journalist while saving spam, hours of scrutiny and giving brands the voice they need.

Wizikey’s co-founders Anshul and Aakriti have spent over a decade in the communications industry, identifying key problems as they served 300+ businesses. These first principles form the foundation of Wizikey - to make the communications industry efficient, transparent and measurable through the power of data and AI tech. With investors like Ajai Chowdhry (Co-founder, HCL), Alok Mittal (Co-founder and CEO, Indifi), Ambarish Raghuvanshi (ex-CFO, Info Edge), Keshav R Murugesh (CEO, WNS), Raman Roy (Chairman, NASSCOM and Chairman, Quattro), Sanjiv Bajaj (CEO, Bajaj Finserv) and the Indian Angel Fund among others, we strive each day to make PR accessible and simple - for everyone.

Payment Startup BharatPe Raises $15.5 Mn from Insight Partners, Sequoia and Beenext

Delhi-based Resilient Innovations Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates payment tech startup BharatPe, has raised $15.5 million (about Rs 106.7 crore) in series A round of funding from Insight Partners, an American venture capital and private equity firm, along with contribution from existing investors, Sequoia and Singapore-based VC firm, Beenext.

The fund raised will be utilized by BharatPe in scaling its operations and empowering millions of merchants with UPI payment within the next two years.

The funding came within a couple of months after BharatPe had raised nearly $17 million (about Rs 120 crore) from Sequoia Capital India, valuing the payments startup at $60-65 million. Prior to that in October last year, it raised $2 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital India and Beenext.

With latest fund infusion, BharatPe has raised a total of $33 million in funding over three rounds, according to www.indianweb2.com estimates.

Founded in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani, is a B2B payments company enabling universal 'UPI'​ acceptance at offline merchants. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an immediate real-time payment system that helps in instantly transferring the funds between the two bank accounts through a mobile platform.

Currently with over 6 lakh merchants in India, the startup is operating in 11 cities - Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chandigarh and Jaipur.

To recall, last month leading payments startup MSwipe Technologies has raised Rs 219.8 crore from US-based hedge fund Falcon Edge, B Capital Asia, Epiq Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. At the same time it was also reported that another leading Indian online payments startup Razorpay is in advanced discussions with Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital to raise $75-100 million in new funding,

BYJU’s Gets $50M from Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia, Sofina, Lightspeed & Times Internet

Indian education technology company today announced that it has raised $50 million to expand its learning app to more students. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan co-led the investment with Sequoia Capital, along with Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures & Times Internet Ltd. This is the first investment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in Asia.

BYJU’S, creator of India’s largest K-12 learning app, is reinventing how students learn in the age of mobile devices. BYJU’s learning approach combines world-class teachers, proven pedagogical methods, innovative technology and data science to deliver personalized learning, feedback and assessment for students in classes 4-12.

“The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative supports innovative models of learning wherever they are around the world,” said Vivian Wu at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, who will join BYJU’s board. “Education can give young people and their families a path to a better future, and families in India work hard to give their children that chance. BYJU's represents an opportunity to help even more students develop a love for learning and unlock their potential.”

BYJU’s is using original content, engaging video lessons and interactive activities to personalize learning for each student. It has been designed to adapt to the unique learning style and pace of every student. In a survey, 79 percent of parents said using BYJU's app improved their children’s learning dramatically, and another 17 percent said it improved their learning significantly.

“We are excited to partner with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to usher in the next stage of growth at BYJU's. Our vision closely aligns with their vision of advancing human potential and promoting equality,” says Founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran.

In a sector where the use of technology is still growing, BYJU’s has stood out with its phenomenal growth. To date, BYJU’s app has been downloaded more than 5.5 million times and reached 250,000 annual subscribers all across India. With an average engagement rate of 40 minutes per day and 90 percent of users renewing their subscription, BYJU’s is proving to be effective at improving learning outcomes and engaging India’s students.

BYJU’s founder, Byju Raveendran, was born to parents who were both teachers and hails from Azhikode, a small village in Kerala. His love for numbers began early and he learnt math and science mostly on his own. He realizes the importance of children getting the fundamentals right in their formative years. “Once children fall in love with learning, they will start learning on their own. That’s why BYJU’s products are built in ways that inspire children to take initiative and learn on their own,” Byju said.

Newly-raised funds will be deployed to fuel international expansion and inspire additional funding investments from leading companies around the world.

GV Ravishankar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors and BYJU’s board member, said, “We are delighted to have CZI and other companies partner with us to help BYJU’s expand opportunity for more young people. Over the last few years, the team has worked hard to make high-quality education accessible across the country, and we are proud to have students from across 1400+ towns learning through the product. We are amazed by their continued growth and are excited to be part of their journey.”

“We are really excited to welcome an investment from Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative into BYJU, as the company continues on its mission of empowering everyone who aspires to learn. Together, the platforms will enable greater reach for a high quality product developed by a great team” said Satyan Gajwani, Vice Chairman, Times Internet

“Lightspeed has invested in education technology companies in the US, China and India,” said Dev Khare, Managing Director, Lightspeed India Partners Advisors. “Amongst all these companies globally, Byju’s market leading education offering is unique and transformational because it is specifically geared with a differentiated pedagogy to the needs of India’s 250 million students.”

Byju Raveendran founded BYJU’s because he believes that the right kind of learning can be a game-changer, as “education is still the best way for most people to improve their lives. In a high impact segment like education, the real satisfaction is not in creating a multi-million dollar company, but in changing the way millions think and learn.”