Sunstone Eduversity, a Gurugram-based higher education platform, recently announced that it has raised $35 million (around INR 280 Crore) as a part of its Series C funding round led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from Alteria Capital.
With the new funding, the startup plans to expand into new programmes with a key focus on undergraduate technology programmes.
Co-founded by Ashish Munjal and Piyush Nangru in 2015, Sunstone Eduversity offers higher education programs in BFSI, logistics, operations, sales management, digital marketing, human resource, business research and analytics, and others. The company is on a mission to bring about a paradigm shift in the present higher education system by equipping the students with various skill sets so that they are ready for real-world job opportunities and easily absorbed by recruitment companies. Its vision of higher education addresses not only the needs of millions of students but also thousands of employers and colleges.
Talking about the platform, Co-founder & CEO of Sunstone Eduversity, Ashish Munjal, said:
“The Indian higher education system is at the brink of a long overdue transformation. Sunstone is well positioned to enable this change and impact the lives of millions of students. Over the years, we have made significant strides in the direction but still have a long way to go as the market opportunity and problem we are trying to solve for, is very large.”
Munjal further added,
“Starting with post graduate management education, Sunstone ventured into undergraduate programmes in 2022 for the first time. The company claims to have registered 10-fold growth in the past two years.”
Sunstone’s training programmes are industry endorsed to enhance employability, designed for hybrid delivery with focus on soft skills and personality development. It claims to have a presence across more than 35 cities in over 40 institutions and is building capacities to expand into 100 cities across the country in the next two years.
Commenting on the funding, Sandeep Singhal, Managing Partner, WestBridge Capital, said:
“Over the last year, we have seen Sunstone grow and continue to upgrade the quality of education provided to every student. Seeing the ever increasing demand and its potential to be a major disruptor, we are excited to double down our investment to support its mission of transforming the higher education sector in India.”
Sunstone’s approach is to work with educational institutions on four fronts including – relevant curriculum, measurable learning, better student experience, and career readiness of the student. These four aspects are integrated through a technology layer which makes Sunstone a superior product as compared to other alternatives.
Last year in October, Sunstone had raised $28 million in its Series B funding round led by WestBridge Capital. Existing investors Saama Capital, Alteria Capital, and Work10m – a work-focused fund by Pankaj Bansal, Group CEO of HR tech solutions provider PeopleStrong, also participated in this round.
