With $19M in funding, TutorVista eyeing acquisitions

By Ruchika Sharma (VCCircle.com)

TutorVista last week received $19 million in third round funding from Pearson, Lightspeed and Manipal Group.

Armed with $19 million in third round funding, serial entreprenuer K Ganesh (right) is gearing up for an aggressive global expansion and acquisition-led growth for his education venture TutorVista Global Pvt Ltd. In one of the largest venture funding rounds in recent times, the Bangalore based online education provider last week raised $12.5 million from the UK based publishing giant Pearson Group and another $6.5 million from the existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG).

Most of this capital will be used to expand in foreign markets, while, in India, it will go in for an acquisition overdrive of schools and school managements, besides tutorial companies in states where it does not have a presence.

TutorVista Founder and CEO K Ganesh told VCCircle: “We want to expand to other geographies like the UK and Australia in the coming year." Ganesh says that his company has so far notched up 10,000 students as paying customers - of which 90% are from the US and the remaining belong to 48 different countries. (The company charges students a subscription fee of $100 per month for unlimited one-on-one tutoring, while the prices for programmes for students in India start at Rs 699 a month).

Its overseas plans include launching online global English programmes, which will be available in all non English speaking countries. The company already has about 600 Korean students who learn English. TutorVista employs 800 teachers, who work from their homes in India.

Acquisitions

TutorVista, founded three years ago, has so far raised a total of $38 million. Its initial capital came from Sequoia Capital, while the second round of $18 million was led by Lightspeed Venture, and joined by Silicon Valley Bank and MEMG. The well-funded company is now looking at making more acquisitions in India, which will include buying schools and school management rights through its division Manipal Schools, and also local tutorial businesses.