Inopen, an educational start-up which focuses on developing high quality academic content for computer science education, is planning to raise Rs 20 crore of venture capital (VC) funds. The company, which started in 2009 by Rupesh Shah and IIT Bombay's professor Sridhar Iyer has raised seed funding of around $500,000 from Ventureast Tenet Fund. It is understood that the company is in touch with some leading VC which have interests in education and funds around $2 million to $5 million in funding.
The company provides tailor-made solutions for teaching computer science to around 125 private schools, across India and is reaching out to 300,000 students. With the money raised the company aims to create more content in subjects other than computer science and also enter newer markets in the state.
“Presently, we are touching around 3 lakh students across cities and aims to touch the lives of 100,0000 students by 2013. Our solution is mainly for private schools and is priced between Rs 150- Rs 550 per year,” said Rupesh Shah Co-Founder and CEO InOpen.
The company's solution is used by schools in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Rajasthan, and it is now planning to enter the Bangalore market.
“Bangalore offers as a huge market and we are plannign to this market soon,” he said
InOpen has also been selected by the State Governments of Assam and Bihar to teach school children in government schools and officer/clerk level employees also. The company is teaching around 4.5 lakh students of class 6-12 in the government schools of these states.
Sridhar Iyer Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering IIT Bombay, Sateesh Andra Managing Partner of Ventureast Tenet Fund and Shridhar Shukla Founder and Managing Director of GS Lab are the members of the board.