Equanimity Ventures bets on ed-tech platform Seal Professional

Bayside Media, which operates management training programme Seal Professional, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from venture capital fund Equanimity Ventures. 

The Mumbai-based company will use the funds to support Seal Professional’s programme development and marketing, deepen their corporate relationships and help with geographical expansion, a statement said.

The company had raised funds previously from angel investors.

Founded in 2016 by Shyaam Santhakumar, the programme trains undergraduate students in management and leadership skills in online and physical formats, helping them get internships and placements. It claims to have trained over 4,000 students, of which 1,800 have been placed in companies such as Flipkart, Aditya Birla, Zara and Calvin Klein.

“The lack of skilled workforce has been a key concern for employers in India. Seal Professional is a great effort by Shyaam and his team to systematically train undergraduate students, preparing them for the real-world job market,” Rajesh Sehgal, managing partner at Equanimity, said.

Managed by Equanimity Management Services, the fund provides early-stage capital in the range of $500,000-$3 million to startups focused on fintech, healthcare and data analysis. Its portfolio companies include online healthcare platform drstore, fast-food brand Samosa Singh, SaaS startup Peel-works, investment app Sqrrl, women ecommerce firm Glowroad, agri-tech startup Fresh VnF and childcare consulting platform BabyChakra.

In July last year, upGrad, which provides education in digital marketing, entrepreneurship, data analytics and product management, acqui-hired CohortPlus, an online community for data enthusiasts and product management. 

 Last week, edtech platform WizKlub raised around $1 million in a seed round led by venture capital fund Incubate Fund India, along with venture capital fund Insitor Impact Asia Fund.

In the same week, education technology firm Eupheus Learning raised $4.3 million in a Series A funding round through a mix of equity and venture debt from Yuj Ventures with returning investor Sixth Sense Ventures. 

Konfinity, an artificial intelligence-powered platform for software programming courses, raised an undisclosed sum in a seed round led by AngelList with several angel investors.