Focus on PALF’s third Indian investment – Avanti Learning Centres

Focus on PALF’s third Indian investment – Avanti Learning Centres

– By Prathamesh Patil

Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF), a collaboration of British publishing and Education Major Pearson and Village Capital has invested into Delhi-based start-up Avanti Learning Centres. This come after Sudiksha sukand Experifun Learning Solutions winners of Edupreneurs India 2013. Both startup got seed funding of $50K.

Avanti will use this seed investment round, which is expected to be aroung $500K and  also participation of two additional angel investors, to develop a comprehensive online-offline learning and monitoring system, to expand on content creation and to build new centres.

Avanti Learning Centres helps to prepare students from low-income backgrounds for college entrance exams, focusing on the highly competitive career paths of engineering and medicine. Students spend up to 18 hours a week at a centre and are charged only $20 per month. Costs are kept low by a large network of volunteers and partners, including universities, public schools, policy makers and private sector businesses, who assist with teaching and administration.

The centres produce significant learning outcomes, with 80 per cent of students showing a 20 per cent or more improvement in performance on standardised tests, and three-quarters of enrolled students measured as being on track for admission to a top college.

Avanti was initially founded as a non-profit in March 2010 by Akshay Saxena and Krishna Ramkumar. The company boasts an impressive track record to date, with students at their centres consistently outperforming those in traditional, high-end classroom coaching programs. The centres lean heavily on technology and media, such as recorded videos and online testing, to facilitate powerful personalised education plans, and also foster a peer-to-peer learning environment.

“It was this commitment from Akshay and Krishna to focus on improving the education of low-income communities, combined with an innovative learning model, that was the most attractive aspect of the investment opportunity” explains PALF executive director, Katelyn Donnelly.

“Avanti is particularly exciting because it is a non-traditional pedagogy with very strong initial results. Our investment allows us to partner with a mission-led company to bridge a crucial gap between secondary and higher education for low-income learners.  PALF is enthused to support the Avanti team to successfully grow across India, and we look forward to working with them to deliver on their long-term vision.”

Akshay Saxena commented:
”Once we decided that a for-profit model was the best way to reach scale, we knew we would need expert strategic insight and advice. We are incredibly excited to be working with the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund as they bring unrivaled education expertise to the table that can help us achieve our long-term objectives.  We look forward to building upon the relationship with Pearson as we improve outcomes for low-income learners in the years to come.”

A look at Experifun and Sudiksha’s niche funding from Pearson Affordable Learning Fund

A look at Experifun and Sudiksha’s niche funding from Pearson Affordable Learning Fund

– By Prathamesh Patil

A company operating low-income pre-schools, and a team who design next generation science learning aids have scooped a share of $150K investment. Experifun and Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions beat off competition from hundreds of education startups in India to take home seed funding in the inaugural ‘Edupreneurs’ programme, a partnership of Pearson and Village Capital.

Launched in July 2012 with $15 million of initial Pearson capital, Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) makes minority equity investments in for-profit companies to meet a burgeoning demand for affordable education services in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The purpose of the fund is to improve access to quality education for the poorest families in the world by investing in committed to innovative approaches and improving learning outcomes.

Led by a team of alumni from the IIT and the IIM A, Experifun helps science teachers bring their subject to life by providing them with kits and activities to conduct classroom experiments. Designed in its R&D lab in Bangalore, Experifun products are patentable, affordable and suited to both urban and rural schools.

Sudiksha operates pre-schools in underprivileged urban neighbourhoods, where there is often a shortfall of education provision. It does that through an innovative model that recruits local women to run branches under an incentivised profit sharing scheme, thus developing the skills of female adults alongside children.

The winners were selected not by an expert committee or a judging panel, but by a group of much tougher critics and stronger supporters – their peer group of 14 education-focused startups who made it to the final round of competition. All 14 fledging firms have spent the last few months with Pearson and Village Capital in a series of workshops and peer review sessions all around India, designed to ready them for investment, and ignite the pipeline of next generation education businesses. Culminating with a presentation by each finalist to an audience of potential investors.

Announcing the winners, Pearson’s executive director of the PALF, Katelyn Donnelly, commented:
“These inspiring entrepreneurs are excellent examples of the innovations desperately needed to improve access to, and quality of, education for low-income learners around the world.  Both Experifun and Sudiksha have established strong traction with customers and shown early promise to transform learning outcomes and scale quickly.

Village Capital has served over 350 ventures worldwide, building disruptive innovations in energy, environmental sustainability, agriculture, health, and education. Village Capital has launched 22 programs in 7 countries to-date and made 30 peer-selected investments.