Ronnie Screwvala's Unilazer leads $10 mn funding round in Lido Learning

Edtech startup Lido Learning has raised $10 million, led by Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures. The small group, online tuitions company has seen rapid growth and is currently on track to reach a $100 million run rate (revenue)  by end of the financial year. Lido Learning currently offers tuitions in Maths, Science, and English aligned with the CBSE and ICSE for students from KG to Grade 12.

The company plans to use this new round of capital to fuel its aggressive expansion plans in India as well as abroad. Lido Learning’s first-ever TV advertising campaign will go live during the IPL season, along with the launch of its free user app to give students access to free curriculum-aligned video content for life.

“Lido is the first in the country to recognise the power of learning in small groups, while being enabled by technology, for faster learning and success,” said Sahil Sheth, Founder and CEO, Lido Learning.  “We’re going to use this new round of capital to ensure that our classes are accessible to students from every corner of India as well as the world. We’re going to double down on our efforts to connect students with India’s exceptionally well-qualified and dedicated teaching talent.”

Ronnie Screwvala, Founder of Unilazer Ventures, said Lido is the first mover in the small-group, online tuitions space. He said  the company has differentiated itself from the start from all other players that primarily offer self-directed learning or large-group classes.

“Lido’s strategy of immersive learning and rewarding positive learning outcomes has ensured that it is best-positioned to consolidate the $15 billion neighbourhood tuition market,” said Screwvala.

Screwvala, pioneered cable television in India in the 1980s and then built a unicorn that was acquired by Walt Disney Co. His entertainment conglomerate UTV was acquired by Disney at an enterprise valuation of $1.4 billion in 2013. He is also the co-founder of edtech firm upGrad which recently became a unicorn or a startup with over $1 billion valuation, after raising the funding.

Earlier this week, Lido Learning announced its entry into the US and Canada with its flagship coding program using the ‘Pair Learning’ methodology, with just two students per teacher to facilitate faster learning, deeper interactions, and real-time problem-solving. Lido’s coding curriculum lays great focus on empowering students to combine coding with their own individual passions, to create learning experiences that are fun and memorable. It helps students learn and practise critical-thinking and problem-solving skills in real-time, instead of focussing purely on programming skills.

Plans are also in place to launch in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia in early 2022, in addition to its existing Middle-Eastern, American, and Canadian operations. As well as to introduce classes in all these geographies in the other subjects already being offered by the edtech at home.

Lido Learning has so far raised $20 million from marquee institutional investors such as Alibaba-backed BACE Ventures, Rocket Internet-backed Picus Capital, and 9 Unicorns along with leading entrepreneurs like Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Mukesh Bansal, Anupam Mittal and Ananth Narayanan.