AEON Learning raises 3.2 M in Series B from Ranjan Pai’s MEMG Family Office LLP

Funds to be invested in growing business from existing academia partnerships and skill programmes

AEON Learning, a Bengaluru-based edtech startup has raised $3.2 million in Series-B funding from MEMG Family Office LLP, a fund set up by Ranjan Pai, chairman of the Manipal Education and Medical Group.

It plans to use the latest investments towards growing business from its university partnerships, and skill programmes. The startup expects to reach a student base of over 100,000 in the next five years and is currently operating in India and the US.

AEON Learning offers its platforms, Avagmah and Acadgild, that has continuing higher education offered by its academic partners and technology skills courses to working professionals, helping them upgrade their skills and capabilities to remain relevant in today’s fast-evolving employment scenario.

Karthik KS, founder and CEO of AEON Learning, says, “The combined and complementary strengths of Avagmah and Acadgild have already positioned AEON Learning at the forefront of the tech-enabled education revolution in India. With a proven track record of successful execution we are now ready to scale up and serve more users with an integrated portfolio of technology skills and in-demand higher education courses.”

“We are glad to have MEMG Family Office LLP as our investment partners who believe in our vision of making continuing education more accessible to working professionals world over and supporting in growing our existing seven academic partnerships and technology skills programmes,” added Karthik.

Ranjan Pai, CEO and MD of MEMG says, “Skills gap is a huge roadblock for continuing economic growth not just in India, but around the world. AEON Learning has the right product portfolio and a highly competent leadership team, which is making a difference in the evolving online education industry. The global online education market opportunity is huge, and we are glad to partner and support AEON Learning as they gear up to leverage this opportunity.”

In future, AEON Learning plans to expand to new geographies and go global with its academic collaborations. The company will continue to explore fundraise to realise this ambition. AEON Learning currently has a total student base of 20,000 spanning across 66 countries and works with seven leading institutes and university partners, 36 corporate partners, with 20 percent business originating from the US.

Recently, AEON Learning acquired the business of online edtech startup Acadgild, which takes a differentiated approach and offers a hybrid model that combines live classes and an online platform for learning. Acadgild was co-founded by Vikalp Jain and Vinod Dham in 2014.

AEON Learning has cumulatively secured $6.5 million from marquee investors like Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys; Atul Nishar, founder of Hexaware and Aptech Computer Education, Singapore based Lionrock Capital, Neeraj Bhargava, of Zodius Capital, Jupiter Capital and Enki in the past. Both Avagmah and Acadgild have been promoted by GrowthStory.

According to a KPMG-Google report released in May, the online higher education market is expected to touch $1.96 billion by 2021. Re-skilling and online certification courses currently account for a majority (38 percent) of the online higher education market, the report added. There has also been a surge in investments in the online education sector, with online skill training startups shifting focus from a university-based curriculum to a more industry-oriented training approach.