Sunstone Eduversity Raises INR 24 Crore In Series A To Accelerate the Adoption of Industry-ready Higher Education In India

Plans afoot to expand into 15 cities and enroll over 3000 students by July 2021

New Delhi, September 30, 2020: Sunstone Eduversity (owned by Sunstone Education Tech. Pvt. Ltd.) an edtech startup offering industry-ready higher education programs with Pay after Placement, has raised INR 24 crore in Series A funding. The funding was led by Saama Capital, with participation from Ashish Gupta, MD - Helion Advisors, Pankaj Bansal, Co-Founder & CEO- PeopleStrong. Existing investors, Prime Venture Partners, Rajul Garg and Purvi Capital also participated in the round. The company will use the fresh capital to invest in its technology platform, hiring and curriculum. Sunstone is also planning to use the funds to strengthen its efforts in creating industry-ready professionals and building its network of colleges across multiple cities.

Sunstone takes complete accountability of a student’s career by operating on a pay after placement model. Students pay a nominal registration amount as an upfront fee and the remaining fee is to be paid only after getting placed at a job at the completion of the 2 year full time program. This unique Pay after Placement model aligns with students’ interest making it a highly attractive proposition for students. Owing to the huge demand from students, Sunstone received 10,000+ applications this year as compared to 2500 last year. Sunstone has enrolled 1000 students this year, a 3x growth over last year.

With the growing number of new-age businesses and dynamic job profiles, the requirement of graduates with a high-level domain knowledge and core competencies is the need of the hour. Sunstone works closely with corporates to develop industry ready specializations such as BFSI, Logistics, Analytics, Sales Management, Digital Marketing and others. The programs are designed to equip the students with the required expertise to tackle everyday business problems and build competencies across industry verticals. The industry-focused and constantly updated curriculum coupled with dual specializations ensure that the students at Sunstone Eduversity are job ready and have the desired skill sets that are in sync with the requirements of any industry.

Founded by IMT-Ghaziabad alumnus Ashish Munjal and Piyush Nangru , Sunstone has eight partner institutions in six cities and will have 20 partners in 15 cities by July 2021.Sunstone Eduversity graduates of the batch of 2018-20 secured 100% placements. Some of the prominent recruiters were Axis Bank, HDFC, WNS, Genpact, Amazon, TCS, Karvy, Byjus, Reliance Retail, PolicyBazaar and Swiggy among others.

Ashish Munjal, Co-Founder, Sunstone Eduversity

“We are delighted to welcome Saama Capital into the Sunstone family. Sunstone Eduversity is fixing the problem of large scale skill gaps in students by adopting one simple principle, Accountability. By collecting fees only after our students get jobs, we make sure that all the cogs in our system are working towards the success of our students. One of the challenges faced by freshers is the lack of industry-relevant skills that reduce their chances of getting hired by reputed companies. We focus on imparting practical skills training instead of outdated theory and remote learning methods. For the batch of 2019-21, we generated more than 450 Internship offers even during this pandemic.”

Kiranbir Nag, Partner, Saama Capital

“Increasingly, the need for education to be outcome-oriented is dominating the minds of both students and the industry. With its technology-focused, data-centric approach and alignment with the students, we believe Sunstone is well placed to bring about a shift in the present higher education system by equipping the students with the latest tools that would make them ready for real-world job opportunities. We are excited to partner with the founders and other investors of Sunstone and believe that the company’s vision has the potential for tremendous impact.”

About Sunstone

Sunstone Eduversity is creating industry-ready professionals with its unique pedagogy and technology-enabled education delivery. Sunstone offers India’s only Pay after Placement higher education programs in partnership with several colleges and private universities. The edtech startup works closely with corporates to develop industry ready specializations such as BFSI, Logistics, Sales Management, Digital Marketing and others. The company’s goal is to bring about a shift in the present higher education system by equipping the students with various skill sets so that they are readily absorbed by the recruiters. For more information, please visit: https://sunstone.edu.in/