Northstar joins $20m round for Indonesia education start-up

Kinesys Group, a local education-focused investor set up last year that counts Northstar co-founder Patrick Walujo as an advisor, also participated. It comes as Zenius confirms the appointment of Rohan Monga, formerly COO of Indonesian ride-hailing giant Gojek, as CEO. Northstar is an investor in Gojek.

Founded in 2004, Zenius provides online tools that focus on conceptual learning that helps students achieve deeper and more contextual understanding of scientific subjects than possible through rote memorization. The service, which is available on Google Play and the App Store, had 12.8 million Indonesian users in rural and urban areas last year, according to a statement.

Northstar, which is currently raising its fifth fund with a target of $800 million, primarily invests in Indonesia but is active across Southeast Asia. Education exposure includes a $50 million investment in 2018 in Vietnam’s Topica Edtech. Earlier this week, Bert Kwan, a managing director at Northstar who facilitated the Topica deal, left the firm to launch a separate investment platform alongside BDA Partners.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Technology
• Indonesia
• Northstar Group
• Beenext Capital Management
• TMT
• Education