Elevate Education Raises Rs 170 Crore, Targets FY27 Profitability

Elevate Education, the Gurugram-based higher education platform formerly known as Sunstone, has closed a Rs 170 crore Series D funding round led by WestBridge Capital. The fresh capital will go into strengthening the company’s AI capabilities, growing its partner-college network, and pushing toward profitability in FY27.

The round signals continued investor confidence in edtech models built around measurable student outcomes rather than pure enrolment growth — a shift that has reshaped funding patterns across India’s education-technology sector over the past two years.

Elevate Education Funding: Inside the Rs 170 Crore Series D Round

This Rs 170 crore funding round is Elevate Education’s largest to date and comes nearly four years after its $35 million Series C in August 2022, which was also led by WestBridge Capital with participation from Alteria Capital, as reported by Moneycontrol. The repeat backing from WestBridge suggests strong confidence in the company’s execution since that earlier raise.

Founded by Ashish Munjal, Ankur Jain, and Piyush Nangru, Elevate Education partners with colleges and universities to run undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, layering on technology support, placement assistance, and structured student-success tracking. The company currently operates across 22 campuses in 15 cities and serves more than 25,000 active students.

How the Rs 170 Crore Will Be Used

The company plans to deploy the new capital across three core areas: deepening its AI and technology stack, widening its network of partner institutions, and building academic programmes better aligned with industry hiring needs.

AI-Led Tools Across the Student Lifecycle

A significant share of the funding is earmarked for AI-led tools spanning the entire student lifecycle — from learning and academic support to career guidance and engagement. This focus on AI in higher education reflects a broader industry push to personalise learning paths and improve outcomes at scale, rather than relying solely on headcount-driven growth. Elevate Education isn’t alone in this pivot — a wave of AI edtech startups has emerged in India over the past year with similar ambitions around AI-native learning.

“India’s higher education system is at an inflection point. The future of higher education will not be defined by who awards the degree, but by who delivers the best learner outcomes,” said Ashish Munjal, co-founder and CEO of Elevate Education. “As AI reshapes industries and employer expectations evolve, institutions need to continuously reinvent how students learn, build skills, and prepare for careers.”

Expanding the Partner Institution Network

Elevate Education is targeting an expansion from its current 22 campuses to 40 partner institutions by FY29, alongside growing its student base from 25,000 to 60,000. This network expansion is central to the company’s growth strategy, since each new partner college adds both revenue and data that can feed its AI-driven personalisation tools — a dynamic that also depends on tighter parent-institute communication as campus networks scale.

Path to Profitability by FY27

Beyond expansion, profitability is the headline financial target. Elevate Education expects to cross Rs 300 crore in revenue in FY27 and turn profitable the same year according to Economic Times — a milestone that matters in the current funding climate, where growth-at-any-cost narratives have largely fallen out of favour with investors.

Sandeep Singhal, co-founder and managing partner at WestBridge Capital, framed the investment around this outcomes-first thesis: “We believe Elevate Education is addressing an important opportunity in India’s education ecosystem by improving the quality and relevance of learning at scale. We believe the company is well positioned for long-term growth.”

Edtech Funding in India: Why This Round Stands Out

India’s edtech funding landscape has cooled considerably since its 2021 peak, with investors turning selective and prioritising companies that show clear revenue visibility and defensible unit economics. Against that backdrop, this WestBridge Capital investment is notable — it rewards a model built on institutional partnerships and outcome tracking rather than direct-to-consumer subscriptions, a segment that has struggled to retain investor appetite. Even niche learning platforms focused on specific skill domains have had to prove similar outcome-led economics to stay funded in this climate.

The round also lands amid continued rollout of the National Education Policy 2020, which has pushed Indian higher education toward multidisciplinary learning, greater flexibility, and wider adoption of digital tools — tailwinds that directly favour platforms like Elevate Education that sit between colleges, employers, and students.

What This Means Going Forward

With Rs 170 crore in fresh capital, a profitability target for FY27, and an AI-first product roadmap, Elevate Education is positioning itself as one of the more mature bets in India’s higher-education technology space. Whether it can scale from 22 to 40 partner campuses while holding onto outcome quality will be the real test of this funding round’s impact.

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Author

Sachin

Sachin Sidharth is a Digital Marketing professional with a master’s degree in Digital Marketing from Coventry University, UK. He has 10+ years of blogging and online marketing experience. He currently heads Digital Acquisition for a leading London-based Fintech firm. At KnowStartup.com He focuses on writing Digital Marketing guides and manages...