Indian Edtech Startup Finds A Potential Investor in TikTok’s Parent Firm

Bytedance, the name behind TikTok, has come forward with an intention to invest in Lido Learning which is a Mumbai-based education technology firm. The move has been made after the Chinese company had foreseen the growth in the educational technology sector and desires to gain a foothold in India. The talks between ByteDance and Lido Learning, are in process, but there is no certainty for a firm deal between the two companies, the EdTech company in the same pattern is in talks with several other potential investors too. 

Lido Learning, founded by Sahil Sheth last year, is in the process to accumulate a fund of $20 million and more.  When asked, Sheth shared the progress in this matter confirming that the company is in the process of raising fresh finances, other than that he was reluctant to share many inputs about the matter. Bytedance, on the other hand, too did not come out with any details and had not responded to an email forwarded to it.  Ambit which is an Investment bank is bestowed with the responsibility of handling the mandate for Lido Learning.

Lido Learning is all about operating in the K-10 segment, with live and personalized teaching through web and mobile app to around 5000 students. It will be interesting to see an investment from ByteDance (which is the world’s most valued start-up) given the existing pressure it has been facing worldwide, particularly from India which happens to be one of its most prominent markets.  The pressure that the Chinese market had to face in India started when the government decided to ban 59 Chinese origin apps, which included the name of TikTok, stating out the reason that these apps are a threat to the national security. This was followed by the changes in India’s FDI policy in April, as per the changes the countries who share their border with India need to get a government approval first before making an investment in India.

As per the April Reports Lido Learning, has already in its list of early investors, media titan Ronnie Screwvala, Vikramapati Singhania, managing director of JK Tyres, and Madhur Deora, president of Paytm, who have announced to invest $7.5 million through funding round which is spread across two parts.

Investment Firm BAce Capital monitored the round. The firm founded by Benny Chen and Kshitij Karundia, who are known to be veteran dealmakers, has also worked as former senior executives at Ant Financial and Alibaba Group.

The change in the scenario took place when Indian ed-tech sector saw a rise in interest from global financial and strategic investors. Byju’s, Unacademy, and Vedantu who are the market leaders could get an investment of around $700 million in recent months. 

The sector has been one which has witnessed the growth because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that has brought a stop to the normal school functioning as well as the higher educational institutes,  and this has eventually forced people to opt for digital learning in place of the traditional learning process.