Softbank funded Eruditus plans to do ghar-wapsi to India—plans to list itself on the Indian stock exchange. Know more about it.

Eruditus, a Singapore-based ed-tech startup backed by SoftBank, is contemplating a return to its roots in India, joining the recent trend of startups opting for a ‘ghar-wapsi’ or a return to their home country.

The move is fueled by Eruditus’ plan to list itself on the Indian stock exchange – either the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) or the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in the coming years.

According to a report by ET, Eruditus is currently in discussions with two prominent firms among the “Big Four” – Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PwC – to facilitate shifting its corporate headquarters back to India.

This decision comes shortly after Eruditus’ existing investors, SoftBank and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, expressed interest in investing approximately $70 million through a secondary transaction in the startup.

In a secondary sale, existing investors acquire shares from other current investors. However, the valuation for this secondary sale is expected to be around $2.5 billion, reflecting a 20% discount from Eruditus’ previous valuation of $3.2 billion.

In addition to the secondary investment, Eruditus plans to raise another $70 million in a primary funding round. This move aims to bring the total funding for the round to $140 million to $150 million.

Established in 2010 by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu, Eruditus specializes in providing executive education programs in collaboration with renowned global business schools such as Columbia, MIT, London Business School, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, and Tuck at Dartmouth.

The platform also offers courses from Indian institutions like IIT Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, and BML Munjal University.

Eruditus is not alone in considering a reverse flip. Recently, another Indian unicorn, LivSpace, announced its plan to relocate its headquarters from Singapore to India.

Like Eruditus, LivSpace aims to be listed on Indian stock exchanges by 2025 and has initiated internal processes for the relocation, targeting completion within the next 9-12 months.

In the previous year, several other unicorns, including Pine Labs, Udaan, Meesho, Groww, and Razorpay, expressed their intentions to shift their bases back to India.

However, as of now, only PhonePe, backed by Walmart, has completed the process of moving its domicile back to India in 2022.

These moves by startups to return to India highlight a shift in strategy. While many had initially sought overseas domiciles for funding and to leverage foreign tax policies, the proactive efforts by the Indian government to introduce new regulations to enhance the business environment and promote ease of doing business have prompted a reevaluation of these choices.