With $323 mln funding, 2016 a bumper year for ed-tech cos

CHENNAI: The year 2016 has become a bonanza for the education sector, which has received investments of $323 million - surpassing the previous high of 2014 when ed-tech companies raised $223 million. At 26, the number of deals this year was also over three times more than last year's $98 million (23 deals).

Almost half of this year's investments went to Bengaluru-based Byju's Class, founded by Byju Raveendran. The test preparation startup raked up almost $150 million this year through multiple rounds from Sequoia Capital, Sofina (a Belgium-based fund), Lightspeed Ventures and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, among others.

An interesting trend was that several companies with a focus on offline channels bagged funding with PE investors taking to regulated sectors.

CX Partners invested as much as $60 million in Nspira, agroup firm of the Hyderabad based Narayana Group, while the Jain Group attracted $35 million by selling a 74% stake in the real estate assets of 12 of its K-12 schools to Cerestra Edu Infra Fund. KLAY Prep Schools and Day Care raised $16 million from Peepul Capital and Kaizen PE. "Offline is thriving in a highly online focused ecosystem and that has given confidence for investments to come into the education sector," said Karthik Reddy, managing partner, Blume Ventures.

The VC firm has been one of the most active investors in the education space with investments in startups like Unacademy and Flipclass.