Mumbai: Nspira Management Services, one of the leading education services providers in India, announced that it has successfully raised US$ 75MM of equity investment led by a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and Banyan Tree Growth Capital II.
Nspira is one of the largest management services players in the private education space in India, provides end-to-end spectrum of services to over 500 educational institutions with a student base of close to 400,000 across 13 states in India.
Keeping Up with the Changing Needs of Children
Nspira is also making significant strides in education curriculum development with the latest pedagogy keeping up with the changing needs of children. Further, Nspira also offers coaching services in the medical and engineering competitive examinations space.
As part of the current transaction, a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia has invested about US$ 67MM of primary capital into the Company for a minority stake. The proceeds will be used to fund the organic and inorganic growth plans of the Company. Anand Rathi acted as the sole financial advisor to Nspira for this transaction.
Speaking on the transaction, Puneet Kothapa, Managing Director of Nspira, remarked, “We are proud to partner with pedigree investors like Morgan Stanley Private Equity and BanyanTree. We will be deploying the funds to scale our business geographically, increase our client base, develop cutting edge education products, modernize our facilities and scale up our digital business. We will also opportunistically evaluate inorganic opportunities that are synergistic with our core business and help us diversify our offerings.”
Nirav Mehta, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia in India, said, “Education service is one of the core focus sectors for MSPEA across Asia. We believe private education in India is poised for a strong growth phase, driven by the large demand-supply gap for quality education as well as by increasing disposable incomes and urbanization. Nspira is a leading player in the sector and has been instrumental in supporting the delivery of quality education to the masses at affordable prices. We are excited to be partnering with Nspira in its journey ahead.”
Naval Totla, Managing Director of BanyanTree Growth Capital, said, “BanyanTree is excited to partner with Nspira, a leading education services provider. BanyanTree seeks to make investments in India which are driven by its large aspiring population thereby providing stability to the business and unaffected by economic cycles. Nspira provides a unique solution to aspiring middle class and has enabled thousands of students to achieve their potential and career goals. We believe the Business model of Nspira is highly scalable and with continuous innovations it shall be relevant to needs of students going forward.”
Samir Bahl, CEO of Anand Rathi, added, “We are very happy to announce the ~US$ 75MM equity fund raising for Nspira from Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia & BanyanTree Growth Capital II. This is the second round of fund raising done for Nspira after raising ~US$ 60MM structured debt in 2016 from Olympus Capital Asia Credit & CX Partners. Our dedicated education sector focused team was able to close these in a short span of 2 years. It also reaffirms investor confidence in quality companies like Nspira. This iconic transaction shall help attract investor attention towards the education sector. We foresee significant amount of deal activity in this sector over the next 5 years accompanied by consolidation of regional players.”
