India's Varthana raises $14m Series B

Existing backers Elevar Equity, LGT Venture Philanthropy and Omidyar Network also took part in the investment. Varthana hopes to raise additional capital in the coming months, for a total Series B round of INR1 billion.

The company provides loans and other forms of financial support to private schools and educational institutions, primarily for infrastructure improvements, but also for investments to improve student learning outcomes. It currently serves 1,800 schools in 50 cities, and hopes to use the new capital to extend services to more than 20,000 schools across India.

AVCJ Research records a Series A investment of INR270 million for Varthana in 2014 from Elevar, LGT and Omidyar, along with an earlier investment of an undisclosed amount from Accion Venture Lab, a seed-stage investment firm focusing on financial inclusion.

"Varthana, through its lending program, enables quality education for the low-income population in India," said Kaizen founder Sandeep Aneja in a statement. "Varthana's founders have a vision to transform the education infrastructure of affordable schools, and we believe that Kaizen, because of its education focus, can support the company to achieve its vision by enhancing its offerings to the schools."

Aneja founded Kaizen after returning to India from the US in 2008. The firm launched its first fund the following year and closed it two years later at $100 million. In 2014, Kaizen launched a pan-Asian fund with a target of $120 million.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Financials
• Expansion
• Growth
• India
• Kaizen
• Education
• Zephyr Peacock Management
• LGT Capital Partners