Sunstone Eduversity Raises $28Mn Series B Round Led By WestBridge Capital The platform plans to enroll over 25,000 students in over 35 cities in 2022
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Sunstone Eduversity, an edtech startup offering higher education programs, recently announced to have raised $28 million in Series B funding. The funding was led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from existing investors Saama Capital and Alteria Capital. Work10m (work-focused fund by Pankaj Bansal, PeopleStrong) also participated in the round.
The company will use the fresh capital to invest in cutting-edge learning and technology assets, building a network of colleges across multiple cities, and hiring across different functions.
"We are building Sunstone to become the de facto choice for pursuing higher education for Indian youth. Education experience for a majority of students is still archaic, input-driven, with zero focus on outcomes. Sunstone flips the norm, by putting outcomes at the forefront, and arms each student with the tools they need to realize their dreams. The current funding is an endorsement of Sunstone's unique model of working with reputed colleges and corporates and using technology to bring quality education to millions of students. We are thankful to our partners and investors who believed in our vision and with this investment, we want to scale the offering across the country," said Ashish Munjal, co-founder, Sunstone Eduversity.
Sunstone, in partnership with various universities, has added three new programs this year: BBA, MCA, and Online MBA and will be introducing various undergraduate programs such as BCA, B. Com, and BSc in the next 12 months. It will be enrolling over 25,000 students across 35 cities by the end of 2022.
"Sunstone's higher education programs have the potential to bring in the much-awaited transformation in the Indian education system where students will now have access to a high-quality education product in all corners of the country. We are excited by Sunstone's growth and the innovation in technology and learning systems so far and look forward to the next phase of growth," added Sandeep Singhal, managing director, WestBridge Capital.
Thousands of students have joined Sunstone this year with the institute registering a fourfold growth over student enrolments in 2020. It has also expanded its presence in 24 campuses across 18 cities which includes some of the prominent institutions such as GD Goenka University, JECRC University, Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology, and several others. The company delivered a 150 per cent placement rate for its 2019-21 MBA batch where 252 students received 380 job offers. Sunstone works closely with corporates to develop industry-ready programs for both postgraduate and undergraduate students, with a special focus on BFSI, Business Analytics, Logistics, Sales Management, Retail, Digital Marketing, and others.
"The team at Sunstone has continued to have a lot of success in proving their model of making best-in-class outcome-based education available across the country with a high degree of accountability with respect to the students' aspirations. We continue to be excited and impressed with the growth in the product offering, team, and student signups, and believe that the additional capital will afford the company the opportunity to scale even more rapidly from here on," shared Kiranbir Nag, partner, Saama Capital.
The Indian higher education system is highly fragmented with more than 50,000 institutions across the country. These institutions are not able to provide quality education to the students. Sunstone's approach is to work with educational institutions on four fronts including - relevant curriculum, measurable learning, better student experience, and career readiness of the student. These four aspects are integrated through a technology layer which makes Sunstone a superior product as compared to other alternatives, the platform shared.
Sunstone has over 300 employees and is planning to hire across technology, growth, product, and learning functions. The startup also recently announced that it would offer a 100 per cent scholarship to all athletes who represented India in Tokyo Paralympics 2020.
