Bengaluru-based edtech startup Newton School raises $5 mn led by RTP Global

Bengaluru-based ed-tech startup, Newton School, has raised $5 million in Series A round of financing, led by RTP Global. The funding round saw participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Prophetic Ventures and Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini and Hemesh Singh. Flipkart’s CEO Kalyan Krishnamoorthy, CRED’s Kunal Shah, Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham, Udaan’s Sujeet Kumar and Razorpay founders Harshil Mathur & Shashank Kumar, along with a slew of angels also participated in the round.

Founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs and college friends Nishant Chandra and Siddharth Maheshwari, Newton School is an edtech platform that enables people to be highly skilled software developers and get into a tech career in top companies and startups. Newton School’s 6-month long cohort-based course includes 1000+ hours of coding, 50+ hours of soft skills training, live projects, and mentorship oversight - designed by reverse engineering industry requirements and taught by industry professionals. 

The startup is regarded as a market leader in the space with its students hired by more than 100 companies ranging from top startups like Zomato, Unacademy, Nykaa, Affle to large MNCs like Publicis Sapient, Thoughtworks, Motorola, Nutanix. Newton School receives tens of thousands of applications for every cohort, and claims it has grown its annual student intake by 10 times with its latest cohort having 300+ students. With an aim to bridge the gender gap in the workforce, it recently launched a women led all women tech program to help women re-enter the workforce, equipped with industry ready skills.  

Nishant Chandra, Co-Founder, Newton School, commented, “On one side you have a million+ college graduates every year with low single digit employability rate and on the other side there are 1000s of companies struggling to find talent. We aim to bridge this massive gap through Newton School’s personalised learning platform. We are building an online academy and solving the deep problem of employability of graduates.”

Newton School has a fee model where students are required to pay zero fees upfront and only start paying once they get into a job.

Already profitable, the company plans to help companies hire a qualified and job-ready workforce of 10,000+ people. Additionally, the capital will be used to expand the team and to develop products utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline and personalise the learning journey of each student. 

Kirill Kozhevnikov, Partner at RTP Global, commented, “Engineering education spend in India alone is 10 Billion USD but the net outcome is low employability rates. Newton School is bridging this massive gap through its product centric personalised platform. In a world where increasing skills matter much more than degrees, Newton School is in a prime position to not just tap into this huge market but also to create a massive impact on the lives of millions of students by providing them access to high quality industry oriented education.”