Indian Economy News

Acumen invests in two education start-ups

  • Livemint" target="_blank">Livemint
  • May 1, 2015

New Delhi: Venture capital fund Acumen on Thursday said it has invested in two Hyderabad-based education start-ups—Ignis Careers and SEED—working in the low-cost school education space.

It invested $250,000 in Ignis Careers that already caters to 28,000 students and has developed English and life skills labs for primary and middle schools to help improve students’ comprehension skills.

Acumen invested $650,000 in SEED (Standard of Excellence in Education and Development), a school management company that works with affordable private schools to improve academic and operational efficiency.

The fund said it is scouting for more such companies to invest in, especially those that promote English and mathematics. “Besides, we are looking at education assessment and education finance space,” said Siddharth Tata, associate director.

He said both the companies have a good chance to scale up. “There is a strong trend to move to affordable private schools,” Tata said over phone from Mumbai. Of all the private schools in India, at least 85% are low-cost or those that charge less than Rs.1,000 a month, he said.

“We are looking forward to working with Acumen on strengthening our curriculum and the processes needed to scale our operations, so SEED can expand to include more schools and deepen its impact throughout India,” said Manish Kumar, co-founder of SEED.

Nearly 31% of children in primary classes are in private schools and the number is growing because parents want to provide better education to their kids and escape the poor government school system, according to the Annual Status of Education Report 2014 published in January.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

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