Edtech startup Sunstone raises $35 million in Series C funding led by WestBridge Capital

• ByStartupStory     |    August 19, 2022

Sunstone, a higher education business that works with academic institutions to help students gain employability skills, has raised $35 million in a fresh funding round as it tries to expand to more Indian cities. Sunstone’s founders announced on Friday that WestBridge Capital led the startup’s Series C funding round. Alteria Capital also contributed to the round, bringing its total funding to over $68 million.

There are thousands of management colleges and institutes in India, but most are unable to attract enough students, except those at the top of the rankings. Their curricula are frequently out of date, and they struggle to place their pupils in jobs.

Sunstone, which was founded in 2019, is tackling these difficulties by providing students with a wide selection of supplementary courses and assisting them in finding jobs, according to its co-founder Piyush Nangru. “The colleges have a 40% occupancy rate. It’s similar to perishable inventory for them, preventing them from amassing resources and, as a result, lowering educational quality,” he explained. “We collaborate with these schools to provide students with upskilling and soft-skill courses, as well as campus-life programs, to improve their educational quality.”

Part of the value proposition of the New Delhi-based firm, which presently serves postgraduate and undergraduate students at over 40 universities in over three dozen Indian locations, is delivering parity in educational quality and job possibilities across all institutions with which it collaborates.

“The Indian higher education system is on the verge of a long-overdue revolution,” said Sunstone co-founder and CEO Ashish Munjal. “Sunstone is in an excellent position to facilitate this transition and influence the lives of millions of students.” We’ve made huge gains in the right direction over the years, but there’s still a long way to go because the market potential and problem we’re attempting to tackle are enormous.”

Sunstone, which claims to have grown tenfold in the last two years, is currently focusing on management schools. It’s also starting to expand into engineering and other IT verticals, which is part of how the new cash will be used, according to the founders.

“We have witnessed Sunstone grow and continue to improve the level of education delivered to every student over the previous year.” We are excited to double down on our investment to support its aim of reforming the higher education system in India, given the ever-increasing demand and its potential to be a major disruptor,” stated Sandeep Singhal, Managing Partner, WestBridge Capital, in a comment.

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