Rural education firm Hippocampus raises $2.4M from ADB, Unitus, Khosla Impact

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Hippocampus operates 128 learning centres in Karnataka with a student base of over 7,500.

Bangalore-based Hippocampus Learning Centres Pvt Ltd (HLC), which offers education services to rural children, has raised Rs 14.4 crore ($2.39 million) led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Existing investor Unitus Seed Fund put in more while Khosla Impact Fund came in as a new investor in the company.

Multilateral development finance agency ADB is investing Rs 10 crore while Unitus Seed Fund and Khosla Impact Fund are together investing Rs 4.4 crore in the company.

The funding will help the education firm expand its preschool programmes to over 700 villages in Karnataka by 2016.

“Our enrollments in pre-school have grown 20 times in three years—evidence of the demand for high quality education in rural India. Our robust, innovative and low cost framework has ensured that we deliver high learning outcomes consistently, creating the platform for us to scale rapidly across Karnataka and India,” said Umesh Malhotra, founder and CEO of HLC.

Source: VCCircle (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Education
Tags
Base of the Pyramid, impact investing, rural development