88academics, an online education provider, has secured equity financing of about USD 3 mm in a pre-Series A round led by Aarin Capital Partners. 88academics (India), an 88tuition (Singapore) group company, will use the funds to develop India specific content for the K-12 segment. 88tuition (Singapore) is an enterprise with a mission to “Empower every student to achieve full potential” and is expanding rapidly in Asia.
Prime Securities Limited was the exclusive Investment Banker to this transaction.
The financing round was led by Aarin Capital Partners, a proprietary venture fund, founded by Mr. Mohandas Pai and Mr. Ranjan Pai, with highly successful track records of investments and exits like BYJU’S, PharmEasy, HomeLane, Faircent, etc. A group of highly successful professionals, including Piyush Gupta (CEO, DBS Group), Vinod Gupta (MD, VG Learning Destination and Rashtriya Gaurav Awardee), P S Jayakumar (ex-MD & CEO, Bank of Baroda), Ramesh Swaminathan (Group CFO, Lupin), Ajay Abrol (ex Head Proprietary Trading, Nomura Singapore), Prem Rajani (Managing Partner, Rajani Associates), Akshay Gupta and N Jayakumar (Management Team, Prime Securities) also participated in the round.
88tuition is one of Singapore’s fastest growing EdTech companies and is focused on delivering superior learning outcomes using a proprietary pedagogy and technology platform. Superior pedagogy, outstanding teachers and attractive pricing have helped 88tuition capture over 6% and 2% (registered users and paid customers respectively) of the highly competitive Singapore market.
Commenting on the deal, T V Mohandas Pai, Partner at Aarin Capital Partners said “We seek to partner technology-intensive businesses in life-sciences & healthcare, education and other potentially large India centric or India-first companies. 88academics provides us with an opportunity to invest in a sector we know well and back a highly experienced management team with a differentiated product and a disruptive business model”.
Mr. Anil Ahuja, Founder and CEO of 88tuition, welcomed all the incoming investors and said, “We are honoured to welcome Aarin and other high-quality investors into our family. Our objective is to democratise education and make the highest quality product available to everyone at an affordable price. We are committed to building a top-quality enterprise and creating value for all stakeholders. We are grateful to all EdTech companies who have pioneered the transformation in India”.
Mr. Ganesh Agarwal, MD Prime Securities, delighted with this association, said, “The Indian EdTech industry is valued at over USD 30bn and the incumbents have significantly transformed the way education is being imparted to students. The market is ripe for a revolutionary and disruptive product that is affordable, customer centric, scalable, and profitable. We are proud to have brought 88tuition, Aarin Capital Partners and our growing list of HNI investors together”.
