Delhi-based education technology company CL Educate has recently announced that it is setting up a fund of Rs.30 crore to invest in early-stage startups based out of campuses.
Through the fund, the company plans to invest Rs.5 to 50 lakh in each of the startups that seek funding to accelerate growth.
Launched its operations in 1996, CL Educate focuses on diverse segments of education, and caters to learners from multiple age groups. In the past two decades, the company has diversified and has established itself as a recognized name in the education sector across a broad spectrum of segments, including test preparation and vocational training. As on September 2017, CL Educate had 200 test-prep centres spread across 100 cities in India, and also operates test-prep centres in the UAE as part of its global expansion.
The latest funding initiative is aimed at strengthening CL Educate’s WAINConnect.com, an open innovation platform for collaboration between startups, universities and corporates to solve challenging problems. The platform, which is home to 75,000 innovators, 200+ organizations, and universities, has been giving young campus-based entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase their creations to industry, academia and potential investors. Some of the popular brands currently associated with WAINConnect include IIT Kanpur, GE, TATA-AIG, HP, among many others.
CL Educate’s WAIN (Worldwide Academia Industry Network) platform uniquely brings together all stakeholders of an innovation an ecosystem such as youth, academic professionals, industry professionals, policy makers and investors. The WAIN innovator pipeline is rapidly closing in on 100,000 innovators and the CL Educate Board has approved the creation of a Rs.30 crore corpus WAIN fund, with CL Educate as the anchor investor, said the release shared by the company. The initiative will see participation from leading companies, universities, and HNIs as investors. Universities, in particular, see this as a unique opportunity to give their students a head-start on their journey towards entrepreneurship, the release added.
Speaking about the initiative, Satya Narayan R., Chairman, CL Educate, said,
“WAINCOnnect has built an incredible pipeline of startups. We intend to add The WAIN Fund and WAIN Studio Accelerator Program to the WAIN Innovation, Collaboration Platform to help universities assist young innovators in scripting their own success stories.”
The first cohort selection and investments will be announced in March 2020 at the fifth edition of MeltingPot2020 in Bengaluru. The last date for applications is 31st December, 2019. Call for applications for CL Educate’s cohort 2020 is live now and one can register at WAINConnect.com/Cohort2020/.
