The Hindu Business Line : Sinhal Classes in talks for VC funding

Mumbai, Dec. 28 Sinhal Classes, the city-based chain of coaching centres, is scouting for venture capital investments into its newly formed subsidiary company that will spearhead the business of setting up educational Web portals.

The company is looking at divesting more than 25 per cent stake in subsidiary company, eStudents Systems, to strategic investors in two rounds of equity funding, Mr Sudhanshu Sinhal, the 23-year-old Director of Sinhal Classes, told Business Line.

“We are currently in advanced discussions with some VC players.”

eStudents Systems will set up an educational networking site for students between the age of 13 and 20. This site will enable students to generate online content related to subjects in competitive exams such as Maharashtra Health Technical-Common Entrance Test (better known as the MHT-CET), All India Engineering/Architecture Entrance Examination (AIEEE), etc.

The subsidiary will also operate sinhalsonline.com, a portal where students applying for MH-CET can give up to 1,600 test papers online, for a fee of Rs 1,600.

“The industry reckons education and healthcare as two recession-proof industries even in the current economic environment. The combination of education and Web 2.0 will be the next big thing going forward,” said Mr Sinhal.

In the last few years, VC companies have shown lot of interest in associating with tutorial firms. In August 2007, Mumbai-based Mahesh Tutorials landed $12 million investment from the Mauritius-based India-focused fund Helix Investments.

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