Fidelity Growth Partners Invests Up To $15M In Mind Shaper Tech

Fidelity Growth Partners India has invested up to $15 million to acquire an undisclosed minority stake in Delhi-based Mind Shaper Technologies Private Ltd. Mind Shaper that operates under the
Classteacher Learning Systems brand, is into K-12 educational content in the country.

Founded by IIT - IIM alumni Rohit Pande and Sameer Buti, the decade old year old firm is working with more than 500 schools and about half a million students providing consulting and innovative technology solutions in the area of school education.

The investment will be used to expand the company’s product portfolio.

“This investment will help us enhance our product offering as well as expand into new segments of education. We see this as a key milestone in our evolution and are glad to partner with FGPI to achieve our goal to support learning and teaching in classrooms across India,” said Rohit Pande, CEO, Classteacher Learning Systems.

The firm has operations in states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and the north east.  It uses technology as an enabler along with professional development of teachers, to improve learning outcomes of students.

Kabir Narang and Raul Rai will join the board of Mind Shaper as representatives of FIL Capital Advisors (India), the private equity advisory arm for Fidelity Growth Partners India will join the board of the company. 

“The company has an exhaustive content library that can be leveraged beyond digital whiteboards, a reference base of leading schools across the country and a strong management team,” Narang and Rai said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Fidelity Growth Partners India, is the India-focused private equity arm of asset management giant Fidelity International. It is focused on cross-sector growth capital investing and seeks to invest in firms with typical investment sizes ranging from $10 million to $50 million.

In April, Fidelity invested $13.5 million for a significant minority stake in Transpole Logistics Pvt Ltd, a Delhi-based supply chain solutions firm.  Another one of its recent investments is Shreem
Electric Ltd which makes equipment for the power transmission and distribution industry. Others include investments in Coastal Projects, Netmagic Solutions, Manthan Systems and Vuppalamritha Magnetics Components.

The Indian education sector saw 11 private equity investments worth a combined $130 million in the first four months of 2011, putting it on track to surpass last year's $261 million raised from 25 deals for thewhole of 2010, according to a report by Kaizen Private Equity.

While most recent investments in the education sector have been in either test preparation, vocational training or school management firms, private equity firms are also looking at asset light models which maybe more knowledge driven.

Another such firm that has raised funding is iDiscoveri, which is backed by Lighthouse Funds. It helps schools develop curriculum through its programme called XSEED.