PE investments surge in education sector: Report

Defying broader market trend, the education sector in India witnessed private equity investments worth USD 208 million till October this year, says a report.
According to News Corp VCCEdge, there were 42 deals worth USD 208 million in the first 10 months of this year, while the entire 2015 saw 81 deals aggregating to USD 166.33 million.
Since 2012, the Indian education sector has registered 289 deals amounting to USD 919 million.
"There is clearly a scope for disruptive technology to be leveraged by this sector. While investments in e-learning ventures would witness a rebound with the introduction of 4G, areas of liberal arts, sports education, media education and adaptive learning offer interesting investment opportunities," said Nita Kapoor, Head - India New Ventures, News Corp and CEO, News Corp VCCircle.

Ventures offering vocational training are ripe for investors to back given the unemployability of our engineering and management graduates, Kapoor added.
Segment wise, test preparation apps garnered maximum funding of USD 140.54 million till October this year from 11 deals, while K-12 education service providers raked in USD 55.54 million from four deals, as against six deals worth USD 2.95 million in entire 2015.
E-learning portals saw 14 deals worth USD 5.10 million, while vocational training institutes secured funding of USD 2.79 million from two deals in 2016.
As per the report, the top three investors during 2012 to 2016 were PremjiInvest (USD 147.39 million), Cerestra Advisors (USD 35.32 million) and Gaja Capital (USD 32.03 million) in terms of investment value.