Edtech startup Scaler secures USD 55 mln funding from Lightrock India

The total capital raised by Scaler Academy since January 2020 stands at $76.5 million with a valuation of $710 million.

With a focus on upskilling college students and tech professionals, the new funds will be utilized for expansion, inorganic growth and to build up its technology platform, the company's top echelon said.

Co-Founder of Scaler & InterviewBit, Abhimanyu Saxena, said, "We decided to go with Lightrock India and our existing investors (Sequoia Capital India & Tiger Global), who share our vision of what we are trying to do at Scaler."

The failure of legacy institutions in India's higher education sector, particularly in the IT space, has opened up opportunities for avowed status-quo disruptors like Scaler to push a new kind of thinking that looks beyond cost arbitrage-based success, he said.

Divya Venkatavaraghavan, Principal Investor, Lightrock India, said, "The team at Scaler Academy (& InterviewBit) are transforming higher education in India by democratising the privilege of working in technology for millions of Indians. They are building a learning community that is accountable for outcomes and designed for the future of work."

Scaler was launched by Anshuman Singh and Abhimanyu Saxena, both of them are IIT Hyderabad alums, in 2019.

Shailendra J. Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore, said, "We have been fortunate to work closely with Anshuman and Abhimanyu since the launch of Scaler Academy. To us, the most distinctive part of their strategy is that they are super focused on extremely high-quality computer science education, delivered with their own unique approach that makes their programs practical and useful in the work environment.

John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global, said, "As an experienced investor in India's startup ecosystem, we are particularly bullish about the country's edtech companies. Scaler's relatively young age (since April 2019) is more than made up for by the vision and maturity of its founders and the 800-plus-member team that is on a mission to disrupt India's tech education space. We could not be more excited to double down on our investment in Scaler and continue to support the team."