Ruangguru Receive Funding Over 800 Billion Rupiah, Led by Tiger Global Management

Startups EdTech Ruangguru announced the acquisition of a $55 million (over 800 billion Rupiah) round of funding led by Tiger Global Management. This round is continuation of the C . series announced in 2019, led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital.

GGV Capital joins top up in this latest round, the initial investor ranks followed Ruangguru namely East Ventures, Venturra Capital, UOB Venture Management, and others. The additional fresh funds are planned to be used to accelerate business expansion Ruangguru in three countries (Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand) in the K-12 segment (elementary, junior high and high school) and non-formal education.

In an official statement, Tiger Global Management Partner Evan Feinberg said, as a player EdTech leader in Southeast Asia, Ruangguru ready to further change and enhance the landscape for K-12 and adult learning. "We are very pleased to be partnering with them as they continue to innovate solutions for this market and advance high-quality education for students of all ages," he said, Monday (19/4).

GGV Capital Managing Partner Jixun Foo added, “Our ongoing investment in Ruangguru is a testament to our belief in their commitment to advancing quality education for all [..] We will continue to support companies that make a long-term impact on our future through educational technology."

Edtech is the premier global investment thesis for GGV with portfolio companies such as Zuoyebang, Vedantu, HuoHua, and LiuLiShuo (NYSE:LAIX).

Co-Founder and CEO Ruangguru Belva Devara expressed her high enthusiasm with the presence of Tiger Global and received continuous support from GGV Capital. “We share the same vision of a world with access to quality education for all. Ruangguru continues to experience a strong growth trajectory in the past year and this investment will help us grow our business further and make a meaningful impact in education, through technology,” said Belva.

Product development Ruangguru

Stated further, with the increasing adoption of online learning accelerated by the global Covid-19 pandemic, Ruangguru has driven significant user volume growth throughout 2020. Claimed Ruangguru has served more than 22 million users across the country and achieved the highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) across all product categories and doubled revenue growth, marking its first year in profitability.

The company entered Thailand using the StartDee brand in 2020, after being present in Vietnam with the brand KienGuru in the previous year. In Indonesia, claimed Ruangguru able to maintain a leadership position (based on the number of subscribers) in the Live Tutoring segment through the Brain Academy and RuangBelajar+ products.

Then, this year, it released another product vertical, namely Roboguru, AI-powered homework solver with Photo Search and technology User-generated content (UGC) to facilitate students in understanding difficult exercises. Also, launch English Academy, affordable online live teaching classes with a Cambridge curriculum to cater to K-12 students and adults.

“Skill Academy has served more than 3 million users, a lifelong learning product Ruangguru just 1 year after launch. Skill Academy established itself as the market leader in its category and won Google Play Best of 2020 for Personal Growth,” adds Belva.

To deepen market penetration during the pandemic, Ruangguru initiated several social initiatives to make an impact in education. Among them launch Ruangguru Free Online School to ensure that learning does not stop, there are more than 10 million students in Indonesia accessing this service.

Then, in order to support distance learning during lockdown, Ruangguru provides free access to RuangLAS, a Learning Management System (LMS) platform that has been used by thousands of schools in 480 districts in Indonesia. Teachers are given free access to the library online consisting of more than 250 teaching modules. There are more than 200 thousand teachers accessing the library online.

Co-founder & Chief Product and Partnership Officer Ruangguru Iman Usman, added, “Ruangguru now has strong investors with education industry expertise. We plan to leverage their expertise and network to further enhance our product and team. So that it can help us in offering world-class educational products. We will continue to fulfill our mission to enable better access to quality education for millions of students in Southeast Asia."