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Exclusive: Sixth SenseExclusive: Sixth SenseVentures’ 2nd local fund closesVentures’ 2nd local fund closesdebut dealdebut deal

! 19 March, 2018

By Debjyoti Roy

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Sixth Sense Ventures’ seconddomestic fund has made its firstinvestment, a top executive of theconsumer-focused venture capitalfirm told VCCircle.

Founder and chief executive NikhilVora said his firm has backed Delhi-based Eupheus Learning, whichdevelops textbooks and theirdigitised versions to integrate classand home learning.

Sixth Sense has picked up asignificant minority stake in thecompany, said Vora, not disclosingthe investment amount. He addedthat he has joined the board ofEupheus as part of the transaction.

Commenting on the investment,Vora said, “We like the edu-techspace as it offers perpetual demand.We like Eupheus because of itsstrong and experienced promoterbacking and it being the only uniqueplayer to have seamlessly integratedclass-learning and home-learningsolutions.”

Eupheus, operated by ProficiencyLearning Solutions Pvt. Ltd, claims tohave presence in over 1,500 schools.The clientele list includes NarayanaGroup of Educational Institutions,GD Goenka Group, and Delhi PublicSchool Society.

Eupheus currently offers textbooksin 10 subjects (English, maths,general knowledge, environmentalscience, and others) for students ofclasses one to eight. It offers thesame textual content in digitisedversion. The ed-tech firm seeks todevelop its offerings in terms ofsubjects and classes both.

The services are offered on asubscription basis, and the solutionscan be bought in a bundle or asstandalone units.

“We have a readiness of will forlearning solutions and with SixthSense this shall get furthersharpened for curated solutions,which shall serve the fundamentalneeds of Indian K-12 space(kindergarten to class 12),” saidSarveshwar Shrivastava, co-founderof Eupheus.

The company has in the recent pastpartnered several global institutionsto bolster its presence in the K-12learning space, such as World BookInc., RoboGarden Inc., Sanako,Fiction Express and Primo Toys.

Eupheus foundersEupheus foundersAround 40 people, including thefounders, Shrivastava, Rohit Dhar,Ved Prakash Khatri and Amit Kapoor,moved out of global educationcompany Encyclopaedia Britannicaand invested out of their pockets tolaunch the venture, Eupheus, in June2017.

Shrivastava, a graduate of Universityof Illinois, had worked with GeneralElectric, Corning, Telecom Australia,NIIT, Pearson and EncyclopaediaBritannica before launching theventure.

Dhar started his career as a teacherafter completing his post-graduationin 1988 and was Shrivastava’scolleague in EncyclopaediaBritannica. Khatri has over twodecades of experience as salesexecutive in the K-12 publishingindustry space. He has beenassociated with publications such asRatna Sagar and Oxford in the past.

And Kapoor, a graduate of TA PaiManagement Institute, earlier heldthe position of director, digital sales,at Encyclopaedia Britannica SouthAsia.

Sixth Sense’s new fundSixth Sense’s new fundThe second fund, which has a targetcorpus of Rs 350 crore ($54 million),was supposed to mark the first closeby the month-end.

However, Vora said that the fundsize may increase as talks with a fewforeign investors were on.

The firm, which is planning to deploymoney in 12-15 companies from thenew fund, will maintain itsconsumer-focused theme.

Sixth Sense had a target corpus of Rs125 crore for its first fund and hadbacked 10 companies, includinggaming arcade operator SmaaashEntertainment Pvt. Ltd, HindustanFoods Ltd, PepsiCo Inc’s Kurkuresnack brand, JHS SvendgaardLaboratories Pvt. Ltd and hyperlocallogistics service provider Grab.

Nearly 50 investors, including familyoffices and high net-worthindividuals, besides Small IndustriesDevelopment Bank of India, hadcome in as limited partners for thefirst fund. Vora said that the fundhas started giving returns toinvestors.

Vora’s investmentsVora’s investmentsVora was recently reported to beinvesting in his personal capacity inGujarat-based Advance Syntex Ltd,that makes glitter powder andpolyester film. He was an earlyinvestor in One97 CommunicationsLtd, the parent of digital wallet firmPaytm. He sold his stake in One97 toChinese e-commerce giant Alibaba inMay last year, reaping almost 75-foldgains.

Around the same time, Vora alsoexited his investment in KangarooKids Education Ltd, when theoperator of pre-schools and K-12schools was acquired by EuroKidsInternational Pvt. Ltd.

Vora is also an investor in Fogg-deo-maker Vini Cosmetics, which raisedfunds from private equity firmWestBridge Capital Partners inSeptember 2017. He has alsoinvested in Noida-based SootheHealthcare Pvt. Ltd, the firm behindParee brand of sanitary napkins.

Besides, Vora has invested in AvigoCapital-backed sports-focused digitaldisplay solutions firm TechnologyFrontiers and aircraft maintenanceand repair company AirWorks, whichis backed by private equity firmsNew Enterprise Associates and GTICapital.

Deals in ed-tech spaceDeals in ed-tech spaceOther ed-tech startups that haveraised funds recently include Toppr,which secured $100,000 (Rs 65 lakh)last month as part of an extendedSeries B round from Hong Kong-based early-stage investor AxisCapital Partners.

In the beginning of this month,Buddy4Study raised $3 million (Rs 20crore) in a Series A round fromexisting investor CBA Capital, whichis backed by the Michael and SusanDell Foundation.

In early February, CollegeDekhoraised $2 million (Rs 13.2 crore) in itsthird round from London-based ManCapital LLP, Girnar Software andothers.

Last month, Pune-based ed-techstartup Rubix108 Technologiessecured $1 million (Rs 6.5 crore) in apre-Series A round led by PolarisFund.

Bengaluru-based iNurture raised Rs28 crore in a Series C round led byVentureast in the last week ofJanuary.

Aeon Learning Pvt. Ltd raised $3.2million (Rs 20.43 crore) in a Series Bround from MEMG Family Office LLPin the last week of January.

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