New-age business school Masters’ Union is in late-stage talks to raise fresh funds led by Peak XV, two sources aware of the development told Entrackr. This will be the first round of investment for the Gurugram-based company in 2023.
“Masters’ Union is finalising a $20-25 million round which will be led by Peak XV,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity.
According to sources, a couple of other investors and several high net worth individuals will also join the potential funding round.
“The terms of the deal are in the final negotiations stage, and if nothing goes wrong from here, the transaction will be completed in a few weeks from now,” said another source who also requested anonymity as the talks are private.
Queries sent to Peak XV on Monday remained unanswered until the publication of this story while Masters’ Union has denied holding any funding talks at the moment.
Started in 2020, Masters’ Union offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in business management, finance, and design, among others. According to its website, over 200 MDs, CEOs, and founders are its faculty members. Its classes are designed in an internship-style structure with guidance provided by industry practitioners rather than solely academic professors.
According to several media reports, the company scooped up Rs 300 crore (more than $35 million) in its maiden funding round from several corporate honchos in April 2020.
With courses ranging from bootcamps, programs for working executives to a full undergraduate course offering a degree from Delhi University, Masters’ Union is certainly aiming high. And the fees are no joke either: starting at Rs 125,000 for the faster courses and going up to Rs 30 lakh for the four-year undergraduate programme.
The high funding is a natural corollary of the sheer scale of what Masters’ Union is aiming for, a chunk of the lucrative, yet highly brand-conscious higher education market. Other startups like Unacademy and upGrad have raised around $900 million and $800 million respectively to date, and have been around with a relatively ‘conservative’ approach, and it should be very interesting to see how they respond to this new entrant.
