Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
money

Bengaluru-based school finance company Varthana has announced that it has secured around ₹19.5 crore ($3 million) in funding from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

The raised capital will be used by the company to expand its school transformation program (STP). The programme is aimed at improving the quality of learning in private schools by extending credit facilities.

Rahil Rangwala, Program Director, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, said,

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is committed to improving the educational outcomes of children living in urban poor households. Increasingly poor families in urban areas are enrolling their children in affordable private schools with the hope that they would get access to a high-quality education. The foundation will work with Varthana to ensure that we support and help school leaders to focus on the key drivers of improvement.

The funding will help the company to provide loans to schools, reward schools that show learning-level improvements, conduct third-party learning assessments, and support education specialists who work with the schools.

Currently, as per the company, the school transformation program covers 337 schools across five states, and is estimated to have an impact on more than 200,000 students.

Varthana also focuses on working with schools to improve their learning outcomes by bettering their teaching quality and technology. In a statement, Steve Hardgrave, co-founder and chief executive officer of Varthana, said,

Through this unique initiative, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is helping Varthana take another step towards enhancing the educational outcomes of children attending affordable private schools. Building on this success, we hope to further expand the School Transformation Program in the coming years.

The company has established an in-house non-banking finance company (NBFC) for giving credit finance to schools. It provides loans from ₹5 lakh to ₹1 crore for private schools at prevailing market rates.

By Jeet