Hyderabad-based edtech company byteXL has raised $9 million in its latest funding round led by Elevar Equity, with participation from existing investors Kalaari Capital and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, ET and YourStory reported.
Founded in 2019 by brothers Karun Tadepalli and Sricharan Tadepalli, byteXL works with engineering colleges — particularly in tier II and tier III cities — to integrate technology and AI skilling into the regular four-year academic curriculum. Its hybrid B2B model combines industry-aligned curriculum, hands-on learning, technology platforms and trained educators, instead of selling courses directly to individual learners.
The proof point is employment: 7,600 byteXL graduates were placed in IT and engineering roles last year. The company plans to scale from 40 to 120 institutions and from 200,000 to 500,000 students across 15 states within two years, investing in AI-enabled learning and assessment, student analytics and personalised learning tools. The round follows a $5.9 million Series A in July 2024.
“As we enter our next phase of growth, our focus will be on expanding our institutional footprint, deepening our technology and AI capabilities, and building byteXL into a larger and more impactful player in India’s technology education ecosystem,” said Karun Tadepalli. Elevar's Sandeep Farias said the firm backs “scalable models that accelerate the economic momentum of entrepreneurial households.”
Why it matters for founders
byteXL cracked the code that pure B2C edtech couldn't: sell to institutions, measure placements, and let the outcomes do the marketing. 7,600 placements is a metric colleges pay for. With AI reshaping entry-level IT hiring, the colleges that embed AI skilling into the degree itself — not as an add-on — will win enrolments. For founders: in a post-hype edtech market, institutional contracts and placement data are the only traction story investors still trust.