Bengaluru: Eruditus Executive Education, a provider of executive education programmes, has raised $8 million (about Rs 53 crore) in a series-B funding round from Bertelsmann India Investments.

The company plans to use the funds to add new programmes with the existing and new university partners as well as expand its geographical reach to China, Latin America and Europe.

“Bertelsmann is a great partner given its global footprint, its expertise in education and its success in scaling business by working closely with the founding team,” said Chaitanya Kalipatnapu, Director at Eruditus.

Founded by Kalipatnapu and Ashwin Damera in 2010, the company offers professional development programmes to working professionals in India, Singapore, Dubai and other locations in collaboration with the executive education arms of INSEAD, Harvard Business School, Wharton, MIT Sloan and Columbia Business School.

The programmes are delivered online or in classrooms located globally. “Across offerings, we have 20 plus programmes. Over 5,000 have been taken into our programmes from over 50 countries. Our intention is how we can make it 15,000 or more by 2018. The popular courses on Eruditus are design thinking, personal leadership and digital business offerings from Emeritus; in addition to the blended programmes from MIT Sloan, INSEAD and Columbia,” said Kalipatnapu.

Eruditus also partners with Emeritus Institute of Management to provide online courses to middle managers. Emeritus, also started by Damera, is an online education startup that follows the SPOC (small, private, online courses) model to provide six to eight week online courses. The courses on Eruditus cost between $30,000-40,000.

“Demand for highquality educational services, particularly in the business sector, is growing fast in India and Southeast Asia,” said Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director at Bertelsmann India Investments.

“Eruditus meets this demand with classroom, online and blended-learning offers, giving more people access to global business education. Its collaboration with top Ivy League universities guarantees the highest quality.”

Bertelsmann India Investments focuses on early-stage as well as growth-stage investments in companies in the digital, education, media and services sectors. Since its official launch in 2012, it has invested in nine companies, including music streaming app Saavn, online furniture marketplace Pepperfry and digital lending platform for small and medium enterprises Lendingkart.

Source: The Economic Times