Edtech Startup Educational Initiatives Raises INR 166 Cr from HCL Group The Bengaluru-based edtech firm wants to grow in Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa. Additionally, it is seeking to acquire edtech product companies focused on improving learning outcomes.
By Entrepreneur Staff •
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Education software firm Educational Initiatives (Ei) has announced the raising of INR 166 crore from HCL Group to acquire a minority stake in the company.
This is a part of the secondary stake deal, in which the Mumbai-based private equity firm Gaja Capital sold a portion of its stake in Ei to HCL Group.
The Bengaluru-based edtech firm Education Initiatives wants to grow in Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa. It is presently active in Singapore, South Africa, India, and the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, it is seeking to acquire edtech product companies focused on improving learning outcomes.
Pranav Kothari, CEO, Educational Initiatives, said, "We have demonstrated our ability to improve learning outcomes and empower school teachers to achieve their intent of every child learning well regardless of their parent income. I'm excited to welcome HCL Group as investors who share our vision of leveraging the best of pedagogy and technology to improve learning outcomes for millions of students in India and around the world."
Founded in 2001, Ei is a business-to-business (B2B) education software company that provides schools with research-backed assessments and personalised adaptive learning solutions to help improve learning outcomes. Ei claims to have more than 1 million paid users for its two offerings: Assessments (Ei ASSET and Ei CARES) and Personalised Adaptive Learning (Ei Mindspark).
Shikhar Malhotra, Director, HCL Group, said, "Ei is a great organisation with technological prowess and a commitment to effecting positive societal change. The organisation offers a distinctive blend of scalable technology, impactful social initiatives and sustainable growth."
Gopal Jain, Managing Partner at Gaja Capital, added, "Ei is a rare example of resilience, high growth, pedagogy and technology coming together in their vision of solving one of the biggest problems of our age – helping every child learn with understanding."
