School Supplies startup Edyoo bags Pre-Series A fund

Edyoo, an e-commerce platform which sells products primarily used by schoolgoing children, has raised $1 million (Rs 6.8 crore) in pre-Series A funding from RS Shanbag, chairman and managing director of the diversified Valuepoint Group.

Bengaluru-based Edyoo said in a statement that it will use the fresh capital for product development, technology, marketing, and to expand its team and areas of operation.

Owned and operated by Edyoo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the startup was founded in June last year by Rakshit Kejriwal.

The online marketplace offers items such as books, uniforms, stationery, water bottles, among others for children between the ages of four and 18.

It also offers value-added products and services, such as EMI on school fees, health check-up plans, insurance on education, sports packages and edutainment.

Edyoo, which currently has a team of 30 full-time employees, claims to have partnered with more than a thousand K-12 and pre-schools across India and several hundred school vendors and brands.

The firm said that it is already serving more than 50,000 parents and is set to cater to more than 2 lakh parents by the end of this year.

Edyoo had acquired Yoscholar.com, a company operating in a similar domain, in March this year.

Founder Kejriwal previously co-founded DropKaffe, a Bengaluru-based venture capital-backed startup that manufactures and distributes bottled dairy beverages.

He was previously an investment banker in New York. While in the US, Kejriwal started and exited an ed-tech company called SmartOn Learning Solutions, which was backed by accelerator TechStars.While GSK said it won’t comment on market speculations, the company had said on March 27 that it would assess its Indian consumer healthcare subsidiary as it looks to fund a buyout of Novartis’ stake in their global consumer healthcare joint venture.

“The purpose of the review is to assess the strategic options for our wellknown and highly valued nutrition brands, including Horlicks and Boost. These brands are licensed and distributed through GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd, a publicly listed company in India in which GSK owns 72.5 per cent stake. We are conducting this strategic review in support of our transaction to buy out the Novartis stake in our Consumer Healthcare joint venture with Novartis. We expect the outcome of the strategic review to be concluded around the end of 2018. There can be no assurance that the review process will result in any transaction,” it said on March 27.

For companies such as Danone, HUL, ITC and Abbott, GSK’s consumer division looks pretty much in line with their product portfolio and could be the best strategic fit.

KKR, which rose to global prominence with its $25-billion historic takeover of US food and tobacco giant RJR Nabisco in 1989, is one of the most aggressive private equity investors in India. The New York-based firm, which has raised a record $9.3 billion Asia fund, has been looking for big-ticket strategic assets in India.

Analysts expect the sale of Horlicks brand, or sale of Indian products.

“We assign a high probability of a global sale of the Horlicks brand, or a slump sale of Malted Food Drink (MFD) brands in India (Horlicks, Boost etc) and allied assets (excluding distribution infrastructure). We believe minority shareholders in India (GSK plc holds 73 per cent in GSK Consumer India) may be appropriately compensated if the parent sells the Horlicks brand globally,” Deutsche Bank said in a note on March 21.