Simplilearn raises second round of funding of $10 million

BANGALORE, India - Sept. 18, 2013 - PRLog -- Khetal & Agrawal Advisors, a boutique investment banking firm today announced that it was the sole advisor to Simplilearn in raising $10 million Series B financing which was led by Helion Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital.

Simpliearn, a pioneer in online education and training for professional certification courses, has received many awards for its excellence in e-learning courses. The Bangalore based organization, has successfully established itself as a leading market player in the online education industry and is working towards broadening its e-learning courses and network in other domains. The funds being raised will be utilized for strategic acquisitions and expansion of e-learning courseware and setting up geographical presence.

“Simplilearn aspires to be world leaders in the business of online certification exam preparation for working professionals. Our USP is that we offer easy and convenient online, classroom and blended training programs across the globe. While there are many players in the market that design and deliver a gamut of certification exams, there is no single company that helps you effectively prepare for such certification exams, and this is the gap that Simplilearn is addressing,” said Krishna Kumar, CEO, Simplilearn. “We’ve been fortunate to have successfully trained over 75,000 professionals, and we’d like to use this funding to continue to scale and help more professionals around the globe to realize their career dreams.”

Shashwat Kumar, partner, Khetal & AgrawalAdvisors, said, “Online education has been our focus for quite some time. Apart from being transaction advisors for this Series B investment; we also facilitated an angel round where we ourselves participated as lead investor. Later on we helped close Series A investment with Kalaari Capital.  Krishna is an entrepreneur who is extremely passionate about what he does and he has been able to scale the business phenomenally well over the last few years. We always believe in encouraging the entrepreneurs by providing a platform that can help them during different phases of their investment requirements. This investment will help the company to explore new options and opportunities in online learning industry.”

“The growth that Simplilearn has seen in the last few quarters is testimony to its success in differentiating itself in a crowded online training market. The approach of being solely focused on certification courses gives it a unique edge, and opens up a large addressable market,” said Rahul Chowdhri, Director, Helion Advisors.

“Since its inception, Simplilearn has grown at a rate of 400% and has outpaced that growth since our investment early last year,” said Rajesh Raju, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital. “We are excited with the growth path that the company is embarking on with the current round of funding. We envision a global leadership position for the company in catering to individuals and corporates in a variety of certification areas.”

Launched in 2009, Simplilearn has trained over 75,000 aspirants across 135+ countries, including professionals from the world's leading Fortune 500 companies. Simplilearn develops its course content in-house for majority of the courses and delivers training through a unique online/offline delivery platform. At present, the company trains over 4000 professionals per month and has study centers across the globe. The company holds the mission of providing the working professionals with the utmost learning flexibility, including 100% online training from the convenience of their home or office, customized classroom training, 24/7 customer support and mentoring via online chat, e-mail, phone.

About Simplilearn:

Simplilearn is an online learning destination for young working professionals who are looking at career enhancement through certification courses across industry verticals. With study centers across the globe, Simplilearn offers over 50 certification courses in Project Management, IT Services Management, IT Security Management, Quality Management, Financial Management, and Technology Certification courses from SAP, Microsoft, and Cisco.  Simplilearn courses are accredited and approved by global certification bodies, such as, PMI®, APMG®, EXIN(R), ISTQB®, CFA Institute® for online delivery across the globe. Simplilearn investor(s) include global venture funds. For more information, visit http://www.simplilearn.com

About Khetal & AgrawalAdvisors:

Khetal & Agrawal Advisors is a boutique investment banking firm which provides financial advisory for M&A and VC/PE transactions with specific focus on IT and IT enabled businesses. An entrepreneur focused approach, strong market network and in-depth knowledge of the technology industry has helped Khetal & Agrawal Advisors to establish itself as a go-to-banker firm for mid size Technology firms. For more information, please visit: http://www.khetal.com/