meritnation

(By Mohammad Rumman & Sneha Johari)

E-learning site Meritnation has raised funding worth Rs 25 crore from InfoEdge. The company will deploy the funds to ramp up the technology behind Meritnation LIVE, hiring teachers and expanding its broadcast studios.

In December 2013, Meritnation had raised Rs 10 crore from InfoEdge which would go towards creating and updating content, brand building and strengthening its sales team. Following this investment, Info Edge invested around Rs 71.5 crore into Applect Learning Systems, which runs Meritnation, across five different rounds – a Rs 6.5 crore round in July 2008, Rs 5 crore round in May 2010, Rs 20 crore round in September 2011, Rs 30 crore round in February 2013 and a Rs 10 crore round now.

In February this year, Meritnation launched six new offline digital learning centres starting with Chandigarh and Lucknow. The model behind these centres was piloted by the startup 2 years ago by launching a centre in Gurgaon in 2012, and subsequently launching four more centres in Jaipur in 2014. The company had told MediaNama then that its centres would run a highly modified version of the online course which was regimented differently. Students were first tested to check their understanding, followed by topical study through animated videos & other content.

Last November, Meritnation had launched its online lecture program Meritnation LIVE targeted at CBSE students between the classes of 6-10 in India. The program would offer online live classes for Science & Maths from MeritNation chosen faculty. In April 2013, the company had launched complete study material from class 6 to 10 for Maharashtra board. Prior to this, it had also completely redesigned its website making it easier for users to navigate quickly and connect with friends.

In May last year, Applect Learning Systems reported operating revenues of Rs 20.28 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2014 (FY14), more than doubling from Rs 9.82 crore revenues in the previous year. Its operating EBITDA loss also increased by 33% to Rs 28.53 crore for that year, up from Rs 21.43 crore loss in year previous to that.

The company was founded by Pavan Chauhan and Ritesh Hemrajani in 2007. Meritnation claims to have more than 90 lakh students on its online platform with over 14,000 animated videos, tests, homework help forums and interactive exercises. Meritnation Live offers online classes for students from Classes 6-12 and preparation for entrance exams like JEE and AIPMT.