Alta Capital commits $200m to India's Cappella Educore

Cappella has been developed since 2015 by JV Ventures as an education infrastructure platform. JV, which focuses on incubation and platform building across socially oriented verticals, confirmed the Alta investment in a social media post.

Cappella plans to expand a current footprint of 13 schools across southern and western India to around 30 over the next three years. JV said the enlarged portfolio is targeted to be worth around USD 550m.

The company’s buildout to date has been supported by a USD 100m investment from UK-based Veld Capital, which has recently exited, according to an article in The Economic Times re-posted by JV. It currently has more than 10,000 students.

India’s competitive education sector is experiencing a pullback from pandemic-fuelled investment in digitalisation. This has been attributed to a combination of physical schools reopening, children’s screen fatigue, and reputational damage among some of the leading players.

This has come with an expectation that more traditional models will be explored by both investors and incumbent digital-focused start-ups. The theme was foreshadowed in 2021 by the country’s ed-tech leader, Byju’s, when it acquired Aakash Education Services, the operator of more than 250 physical test-prep centres, in a USD 1bn deal advised by EY.

“In terms of new providers, there’s probably going to be a greater influx of large offline providers,” Amitabh Jhingan, leader of EY Parthenon’s international education practice, told AVCJ in August.

“There’s room for innovation, but the start-ups will take longer to grow. They will have to build their brands over time, and that’s not easy for the simple reason that building an education brand is not about branding. It’s about reputation and outcomes, and that takes time.”

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• Topics
• South Asia
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• Education