{"id":2900,"date":"2014-07-31T12:10:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T19:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/?p=2900"},"modified":"2014-08-25T12:11:31","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T19:11:31","slug":"unitus-seed-fund-adds-education-veteran-to-team-looks-to-invest-3-crore-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/updates\/unitus-seed-fund-adds-education-veteran-to-team-looks-to-invest-3-crore-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Unitus Seed Fund Adds Education Veteran to Team; Looks to Invest 3 Crore in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unitus Seed Fund looks to take advantage of the demand for quality education delivered at prices affordable to the masses in India and driven by entrepreneur innovators<\/h2>\n

\"teacher-students-500x500\"Bangalore, July 31, 2014.<\/b>\u00a0Low-cost private education is poised to become a driving force in improving the lives at the\u00a0base of the economic pyramid (\u201cBoP\u201d)<\/a>. The only way out of poverty is education \u2013 no one understands this better than a low-income Indian parent.\u00a0As technology creates opportunity for disruptive innovation in education sectors, venture investments are picking up. Following this trend, Unitus Seed Fund has added a new venture partner to capitalize on the opportunities in education: Srikanth Iyer, formerly CEO of Pearson India. Unitus is also allocating 3 crore (USD 500,000) to make seed-stage investment in new India education companies in the second half of 2014.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/td>\nSrikanth Iyer joins USF as a venture partner; to invest in the education portfolio<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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New Leadership: Srikanth Iyer<\/h2>\n

\"2014Recognizing the growing opportunity to find and support companies in the low-income education sector, Unitus has added a veteran education startup leader as a venture partner on our team:\u00a0Srikanth Iyer<\/a>. He leads our national efforts to invest in the best education companies that are scaleably serving low-income population. Srikanth was most recently the CEO at Pearson India. Previously, he co-founded\u00a0Edurite Technologies<\/a>, a leading e-content provider in the education space. Srikanth\u2019s leadership bears testimony to the phenomenal growth story of Edurite, which he lead to acquisition by\u00a0TutorVista<\/a>; a global online tutoring company, and further acquisition by Pearson in 2011.<\/p>\n

Srikanth commented \u201cI am very excited to be involved with Unitus Seed Fund. I have always been impressed with their intent and clarity, I am looking forward to working with entrepreneurs and making a difference to Indian education serving the BoP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increasing Seed Investments: 3 Crore to Education in 2014<\/h2>\n

To capitalize on the increased activity in BoP startups focused on education, Unitus Seed Fund is looking to complete 2-3 new education investments and has allocated up to three crore (USD 500,000) to invest over the remainder of 2014. We will source opportunities for investment through our existing proprietary channels and relationships, through our\u00a0nine city roadshow<\/a>, and through the new network that Srikanth Iyer brings us from his extended tenure as an education pioneer in India.<\/p>\n

The types of companies we find to be most promising include those that have one more the following traits:<\/p>\n