Education content provider S Chand and Company has secured a second round of funding worth $27 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC), the PE arm of the World Bank, and private equity fund Everstone Capital. Everstone already holds a 31 per cent stake in S Chand, which it had acquired in the first round of funding in 2012 for $28 million.

In the latest round, while IFC has picked up a minority stake for ₹110 crore ($17 million), Everstone has invested ₹60 crore ($9 million) to retain its current stake in the company, said Himanshu Gupta, Joint Managing Director, S Chand.

With this year’s revenue at $100 million, S Chand is looking at a CAGR of 18-20 per cent for its print business in the coming years.

Currently, 95 per cent of its revenue comes from print and 5 per cent from digital services. The company wants to increase the digital services share to 25 per cent in five years.

“We are looking to expand rapidly in the non-infrastructure education sector — by augmenting textbooks with multimedia and digital delivery content — and IFC’s investment will be used to support this strategy,” said Gupta.

Acquisition plans The company is looking at aggressive acquisitions over five years.

It plans to acquire a 100 per cent or majority stake in at least three or four regional publishing houses that offer products aimed at State education boards.

“In 5-10 years, a lot of consolidation is likely to happen in the market, and we will be on the lookout for an opportunity to buy out small and medium players and turn them around,” said Gupta. In the past three years, S Chand has acquired a 100 per cent stake in Vikas Publishing House and Madhuban Educational Books for $20-25 million.

Funds start-up By the end of this year, it will buy out Saraswati Publishing House, in which it already holds a majority stake.

S Chand recently also invested $200,000 in start-up Smartivity Labs, which uses augmented reality and robotics for learning.

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